Day 158

"Bubba, so we can get our stories straight... What did you tell the others where I was when I went home?"

Jimin and I were snuggled up together inside the grand carriage on our way to Seokjin's for his birthday celebrations. I was nervous to see everyone again, particularly because I knew I couldn't utter a word about my twin sister, who was back at the cottage with Eomma Park.

"I actually didn't tell them anything," Jimin admitted as he buried his face into my neck. I thought it was adorable how he tried to hide anytime he got shy. "Only Hoseok, Yoongi and their females came to visit me. I was at a loss for words, so I simply expressed how sad I was that you weren't here. If I'm being honest, for the first two weeks I was in a bad place mentally. I couldn't sleep without dreaming about you. I couldn't eat because I was too worried you wouldn't come back."

It felt like a knife was being drawn into my heart as I listened to how the love of my life had suffered. At least I had my family to talk to about everything, whereas he had no one.

I cupped my boyfriend's chubby cheek and guided his lips to my own. I tried to soothe all the negative memories he had of our time apart; I would rewrite them with loving moments of us being together again.

"Hopefully, if everything goes well, you'll never have to worry about not having me by your side again."

The way he looked at me was so loving, yet I could also see a hint of fire in Jimin's eyes. "I'm never letting you go without a fight, My Love. If our plans don't work, then they'll have to pull you out of my cold dead hands."

As morbid as that sounded, my heart leapt with joy. Never had any of my past boyfriends fought for me the way Jimin was. Never had I been looked at like I was the centre of a lover's entire galaxy, as Jimin did. I'd never been so sure of someone's love for me as I was with Jimin. Unlike the men of my past, Jimin was always so open with his feelings, his thoughts, hopes and dreams. Every day I fell more and more in love with the man, and I was so lucky to call him my own.

"Let's not think about that," I whispered, kissing the tip of his nose before I moved my lips to his. The way his mouth moulded with mine was like every part of us was made for each other. I felt his urgency, passion, love and undying desire for me. I knew we'd be arriving with bruised and swollen lips—I didn't care, though.

Jimin moved me to straddle his hips. His hands found their way into the thick woollen leggings that I wore under my thick knitted dress. He swallowed my moans and whimpers as his fingers swiped the length of my folds before they started circling my throbbing clit. I had missed his touch. The last two days of withholding from sex had been excruciating.

"I need you, Baby," he groaned as my hips rolled onto his hard cock. As much as I wanted him buried deep within me as I rode him like a cowgirl, sticking to our insemination plan was more important.

I was saved from saying 'Fuck it' when a knock rang out on the front of the carriage. The horse-drawn vehicle was slowing down—we had reached our destination. The whine that slipped from Jimin's lips drenched my panties. Every time I denied him sex for the sake of the insemination was another time I denied myself pleasure. At least he was getting a blowjob or a handjob from me each time he contributed a sample of his sperm for the cause. I, however, was getting metaphorical blue balls. I knew that as soon as I let my boyfriend go down on me or finger me until I came, it would be so much harder to withstand him begging for sex.

'Five more days. You can be a little nympho after that.'

꧁♥💜♥꧂

When I had been pulled away by the six other assigned females for 'girl talk', it had taken all my strength to make sure I kept the truth to myself. As soon as Jimin and I stepped into Seokjin's house, we were greeted with a flurry of questions. While the men had bought Jimin's and my lie, it seemed like some of the women—particularly my two closest friends—had not.

"Tell us again what happened. But this time, don't leave out anything," Bong-Cha urged me on, her eyes sparkling with wonder as she held my hand in hers. "I've never had an adventure like that. I'm living vicariously through you."

They say the most believable lies are built on truth. So, I harnessed the more realistic facts about what had happened and embellished them to create a well-rounded story of where I'd been.

"About a month and a half ago, I received a telegram," I said, looking around at the other women. "It came from a person who said they were part of my family and were desperate to find me after I'd been abducted by the pirates." The day I'd crossed the stairs back to my home, the Oracle gave me the card that told me what I needed to do. I'd taken that fact and ran with it.

"I believe it was destiny that led to you receiving that telegram," Da-Eun said. A soft smile graced her face as she listened to my fictional story. "It shows that people are willing to search the entire world for you because you're loved and missed."

"How did they know you were with Jimin?" Soon-Bok asked with curiosity. I could see some of the other ladies also nodding as if they wondered the same thing.

"Have you met many other foreigners recently who have long red hair like waves in an ocean?" I put to the others, trying to throw them off the one hole I had in the lie. I had no idea how to explain how or why the telegram had been sent to me—my mouth had spoken the lie before my brain could catch up. A chorus of 'No' came out and I breathed out in relief. "Exactly. I guess whoever sent it had heard a foreigner that fit that description was living at the Park's palace. Jimin and I thought they must have sent the telegram in hopes that it would arrive to the correct person.

"At first, both of us were concerned about the intentions of the sender since they didn't disclose who they were. But the telegram had info about my family that only I would know. So, we became more accommodating to their request that I travel to Busan to meet."

"Why didn't Jimin go with you? Surely it would have been safer to go with him than by yourself," Ma-Ri asked with concern in her voice.

"He wanted to, but I told him this was something I needed to do by myself," I answered. As I said the words, my mind took me back to that day at the stairs when we were saying goodbye to each other. "As you all know, travelling with a Seed Bearer can be dangerous. Some women think they are deserving to carry the offspring of the next generation, even if they are not assigned to one. I couldn't bear it if something happened to him while I needed to ascertain whether the message was authentic or a hoax. I made Jimin promise me that he would not come after me."

"That must've been hard to get him to agree to that," Soon-Bok laughed. She knew my boyfriend well. "If that was me and I had to try and get Seokjin to not come looking for me, nothing would keep that man away."

I smiled, nodded and agreed, "Yeah, it wasn't easy. I reminded him that this was a journey only I could take. I didn't want to leave him behind. I knew that if I didn't go, though, I would have wondered 'What if?' for the rest of my life."

"Life is too short for regrets," Bong-Cha commented, sounding much wiser than her young age of 23. The rest of us nodded at the truth in her words. "So, did you find out who sent the telegram? Was it your family?"

"Yeah, when I got to Busan, I was reunited with my father and older brother. It was so good to see them again," I replied, thinking of my family and what they were doing. I wondered how little Nellie was going with her new family. I hoped my parents weren't mourning the loss of Esther and me too much and were doting on their new granddaughter. "I wished I could have seen my mother and sister again. My father mentioned that the journey here was lengthy, and their presence was needed more back home to care for my brother's children.

"I had a couple of beautiful days with my dad and brother, although I realised that I missed my Jiminie too much. By sharing all the experiences I had in this new country, they could tell how deeply I had fallen in love with both the beautiful land and a wonderful man. My father told me that my future was in Seoul and that he supported my decision to be with Jimin. Saying goodbye to my family had been hard. It was nowhere near as difficult as it had been to be parted from the man I love, though."

"That's so sweet!" Hana cooed. Her voice was soft; she was still shy with the rest of us.

"I realised also that I couldn't be separated from my friends that I had made here." A chorus of excited squeals rang out in the room as I was surrounded by bodies. From the bottom of the group hug, I saw the door open, and a few familiar faces peeked through. Jimin's smile was so bright it rivalled the sun. I sent one back to him, along with a slight nod of my head signalling that everything had gone well.

"While I am delighted to witness the abundance of affection in this room, today is meant to be a celebration of me." Seokjin's loud complaint was emphasised by a deep pout, which made him look cute. "So, if you're all done with your 'girl talk', can we get back to my birthday? I'm not getting any younger."

⊱ ───ஓ๑💜๑ஓ ─── ⊰

Day 160

As I lay in bed, I struggled to contain my laughter at Jimin's endearing whimpers. I was trying to be a supportive girlfriend. I couldn't help but see the humour in the childish hissy fit he was throwing.

"Baby, do I have to?" he whinged once again.

"You're asking if you have cum in a cup again?" I bit my lips as I tried to hold back a smile when he nodded with a large pout on his face. "No, you don't have to, Bubba. I'm okay with us never having children if you're okay living until you're an old man without me."

"You're making fun of me, aren't you?" I didn't think his bottom lip could jut out any further but somehow it did. "Ugh, I hate it when you're right." This time, I did giggle—he'd buried his head into my naked breasts like they were boulders that could hide him from the task at hand. "When did making a baby become such a chore?" he mumbled against my breasts. "I just want to fuck my girlfriend... but no. 'Gotta save the juice so it counts'. Whatever the fuck that means anyway..."

It was safe to say that my boyfriend was sexually frustrated—despite cumming once a day for the past four days. Today was the day before Esther would be ovulating. My poor Seed Bearer was over the whole insemination thing. He had been a trooper and incredibly supportive, though. The problem for Jimin was that he had not had sex once on any of those four days. And if Jimin hadn't had sex, then neither had I.

Out of the two of us, I should have been the one who was over our attempts of trying for a baby. I was withholding any sexual pleasure for myself, which was the main cause of Jimin's tantrum. He had been trying to get me to do away with the 'no sex' rule for the past three days but I had managed to withstand... just.

I'd almost caved last night—Jimin's hand had gone exploring while I was too engrossed in the book I was reading. As soon as his fingers grazed my lower lips, my legs shut, closing up shop faster than markets with a storm on its way.

"You know the rules, Jiminie," I chastised. I lessened the blow with a peck to the tip of his nose. "To make sure your little swimmers are in optimal condition, there can be no other sexual activity. Do you want to go through this all again?"

He huffed in resignation and shook his head. "No. I want this to work, Sweetheart. I don't want to go through with the other option if we don't need to."

I didn't want to think about plan B either. The insemination syringes that Esther had brought were single-use only, and we only had enough for one round. While we could have saved half for the following month, we all agreed that it was better to go hard and try to get Esther pregnant on the first cycle rather than try again. That meant we had to think about a plan B in case plan A did not work. There had been much discussion, and a lot of tears but we had finally agreed. If the insemination didn't work and the tests came back negative, then next month—and any that followed it—Jimin and Esther would use the old-fashioned approach to falling pregnant.

I didn't want my boyfriend to have to have sex with my twin sister; the thought of it made my stomach turn. We were all desperate to keep our secret hidden, though, and it seemed like the next best option available. My only request should plan B come into effect, was that I did not want to be in the room while they fucked. If the surrogate was anyone other than my sister, I would have demanded that I be there to make sure nothing else happened. I trusted Esther with my life and loved Jimin with every fibre of my being, so I knew neither of them would do anything to betray me.

"Let's cross that bridge if we get to it, okay?" I whispered as I moved closer to his lips. He had barely begun to nod when I crashed into him and poured every hope, wish and prayer into our kiss.

Since we weren't able to have sex because of my self-imposed embargo, Jimin and I had spent a lot of time making out. I felt like a teenager again. Instead of sneaking out of the house to meet up with a cute boy, I was lounging around in a large bed trying to stop Jimin from getting into my pants.

When things started to heat up between us, Jimin was the one who pulled away. "It's only three more days of this, right?" he asked, breathless from our heated kiss. The way he was panting so sexily made me want to ravage him on the spot.

"Three more days, Bubba," I reassured him with a soft peck on his swollen lips. "Hopefully seven days of sexual inconvenience for us means that we can last the rest of our lives together."

꧁♥💜♥꧂

"I swear, Jimin has the easier part," Esther whined as we set up shop in the bathroom. One thing she requested soon after we got here was that we speak in our native language when it was just the two of us. "You're the one doing the hard work, Squish."

I laughed as I held the small cup of his 'juice' in my washed and gloved hand. The two of us had become a well-oiled machine with this being the fifth time we had done this.

"I have to keep alternating the hands that I use so that my arms remain even. I don't want to have one Popeye arm from wanking Jimin and one normal-sized one."

Esther laughed so hard I thought she was about to wet herself. "That is not an image I thought I'd ever picture," she said amongst giggles. "Ugh, do you think that is why Mark Coney—you remember him from high school, right? Remember how his right arm was bigger than his left?"

"That guy was the worst!" I shuddered as I remembered the creep who had gone to high school with Esther and me. The day he was expelled from our school was the day many girls felt a sense of relief, knowing they would no longer be subjected to his unwelcome advances. "That guy was the worst! May his arse become infested with the fleas of a thousand camels... with arms that don't reach."

"Elenor Bennett! I have never been prouder to be your sister," she said, wiping away a fake tear with a dramatic flair.

"You're just lucky that Kevin Stevenson jumped in when he did," I said, unwrapping the syringe wrapper. I looked Esther in the eyes through the mirror and saw the look of disgust come across her features as she remembered the day that Mark had tried to drag her into the toilets. "Mark's face looked like a punched in lasagne after that. After leaving Principal Trunk's office, Kevin shared with me that he believed getting expelled was worth it. He didn't care what happened to him because beating the crap out of that fuckwit meant us girls at the school would be safe."

I kept eye contact with her for a moment longer before I turned back to my job. I opened up the sample cup, the faint smell lingering in the air. To me, I didn't mind it—the sperm smelled like hope for a long happy life for Jimin. Esther couldn't stand it, though, which was why I was the one doing all the handling of the bodily fluids. I drew the translucent creamy liquid into the syringe barrel and made sure that it was filled.

"Okay, your turn." I handed the syringe to my sister. As I turned to leave the bathroom, I left her with the saying I used each time, "Good luck, and don't fuck it up!"

As I walked out of the room, I sent out a silent prayer that this would work. If we were in my universe, things would have been done differently. A fertility clinic would have screened Jimin's sample to make sure everything was good with his sperm. Then, when it came time for the insemination, the ejaculate that Jimin donated would have been cleaned in a way that separated the healthy and viable sperm from the slow and undesirable ones. We weren't able to do that here, so we had to hope that there were more healthy swimmers that could impregnate Esther's egg. Instead of a fertility technician inseminating Esther using modern equipment, my sister did it herself with the syringe.

I waited in front of the closed bedroom door with my fingers crossed. Once Esther called out 'Okay', I made my way back inside to find her lying on the bed under the sheets with pillows under her legs. In the bathroom, I cleaned up the used syringe, along with the remainder of Jimin's contribution. I washed my hands and headed back into the bedroom.

"What would you like for lunch? You thirsty?" This was something I had done each day after the insemination. Because Esther was to lie down for at least half an hour, I acted as her maid. I figured it was the least I could do seeing as she was (hopefully) giving me the gift of a baby.

"Some tea would be nice, thanks." From her cocoon of blankets, she added, "You know the one I like. And I'm happy with whatever you or Jimin feel like for lunch."

"I'll see what I can rustle up. I'll send Jiminie in with some tea soon."

"Hey Nell," she called out as I was almost out of the room. I turned, willing to do anything she might need. "I have a good feeling about this one."

"You've said that about each time," I teased, laughing at how adorably young she looked despite trying to get knocked up.

"Well, it has to work some time, doesn't it?"

"Fingers crossed." I raised my hand to show my crossed fingers and smiled as she mirrored the gesture. I headed into the kitchen and as I filled the kettle with water to be placed onto the stove, I prayed that Esther was right.

'Universes, would it be too much to ask for a positive test result in a fortnight?'