"should've told me we were using your car, maybe I would've called my cousin to pick Jisung and I up instead." Jeno had muttered silently from the passenger seat.

Jisung was once again distracted by his toys, looking out the window as he sat at the back of the car. Unbeknownst to him on the tension inside the vehicle.

"Your mom said Woozi has business to do with his husband, Hoshi right?" Jaemin asks, glancing beside him to check for confirmation.

Jeno only nodded stiffly with a sulking huff in response. Jaemin took it anyway because atleast he got something rather than nothing.

"Thus, here we are."

"Should've called an uber too."

"Your parents are protective of you and Jisung, especially when it comes to the public eye. So, per-request of Mrs. Lee, she agreed to my suggestion of using my car today." Jaemin stated.

"So mother wants me to suffer. That's lovely." Jeno grunts and looks at the window to avoid Jaemin's stressed gaze.

The elder sighed deeply, it's fine, he'll deal with this. He can try to make Jeno less.... Bitchy towards him. He can make Jeno be nicer to him. He can ease their tension once they talk about it.

And hopefully, he can make their forced marriage work.

𖡗

"You guys made it! Well, you're like– twelve minutes late but that's better than not showing up." Mrs. Na grins happily at them once they've entered the small cafè.

"We're here to make this quick, Jisung doesn't like waiting long. Sure, you must've known that, right mother?" Jeno discreetly glares at his mom.

Mrs. Lee only smiles forcefully at him, but mouthing out a small apology on specifically telling him to bring Jisung with them when there's clearly nothing for the little boy to do, and Karina nor Woozi aren't even here.

So, by now, Jeno knows his mother wanted Jisung to be here so he could have a bit of time with his parents. Parent/s.

And she knows Jeno would've kept him away from his own biological father, even in their own condo now that they live together. She's really testing the waters.

And Jeno's nerves too.

Great, now he has to deal with two people ruining his mood ever since this whole forced-marriage-deal started.

His mother isn't even a cruel woman. She's quite the best mom he could ask for.

But after this, after making a deal with the Na family because of some stupid "owe" or whatever, she's really living for it.

He knows she's just trying to work this out as best as it could be, especially after seeing how Woozi's own relationship turned out.

She's trying not to disappoint anyone just like how Jeno is trying. Only difference is, Jeno's the main point. Not her. She's just some little guidelines for him to follow through.

Atleast she didn't have to marry a douchebag like Na Jaemin.

"Let's get to planning then," Mrs. Na cuts off his thoughts.

And that's when he noticed he was already sat down in front of the two ladies, Jisung on the high baby chair at the end of the table, which is on his right, while Jaemin was on his left.

He looks down to see Jaemin had his hand around his wrist, realizing the elder had the guts to touch him like that without asking.

Jaemin looks at him and then towards their hands, he reluctantly lets go but brushes his fingers on the back of his hand. Leaning in, he whispers.

"We'll continue talking later, alright? Your mom is taking Jisung out along with them after this, saying she wanted both of us to bond while Jisung will be bonding with his new grandma."

Jeno scoffs at his words and was about to say something, until Mrs. Lee smiles at them while Mrs. Na coos out loud, "awww, look how they're already getting closer. Isn't that cute?"

Her comment made Jisung tilts his head, looking away from playing with his toy dinosaur on the table with his food.

Jeno immediately turns to him and placed a hand on his arm. "Papa will answer your questions later, alright? Wait patiently for them, okay?" Patting his son's arm to reassure him.

Jisung nodded obediently, keeping quiet and going back to playing with his toy dinosaur as Jeno took a small exhale of relief.

Turning back to look at their moms, he tries to focus on their topic about the wedding, Jisung glancing up in confusion while Jeno tries his best to make excuses like it's for a friend or something.

Luckily, Mrs. Lee helped him along with it. Reassuring Jisung that this is just some adult talk and it's also for a friend of theirs.

Meanwhile, Jeno was struggling on doing three things at the moment.

One, listening to whatever their plans will be for the wedding.

Two, making excuses to Jisung about it.

And three, ignoring the bigger and same hand that had touched him earlier on top of his own.

𖡗

"I'm not trying to stress you out or anything, and I certainly don't want you to hate on me even more. But I literally just want a full on conversation with you about who am I to you and Jisung."

Jeno chuckled sarcastically, placing his bag on the table in their living room while he turns around. "I'm not trying to ruin your hopes or anything, but it's literally too late for all of that."

"Except the part of you explaining to me about what happened. I'm Jisung's biological father, how and why are you pushing me away from both of you still?" Jaemin stressed out.

Jeno, as equally stressed and being pressured on about the topic, scowls at him.

"Why do you want to know so badly?"

"Because!" Jaemin carelessly flails his arms around the air in frustration. "I'm his dad, I deserve to know! And not only that, it's best if the truth is out because we'll be married for life! We'll be together till we die."

"But he has to know, you can't lie to him forever."

"Either way, he'll know the truth, dear."

"I'll tell you another time though, only when you tell Jaemin about the truth."

His mother's words echoes through his mind, sweet Jesus, Jeno's getting a headache from this.

"You want the truth? The whole honest explanation? A full on story time?" Jeno sarcastically said, also flails his arms on his side lazily.

"Yes! Is that too much to ask for?" Jaemin couldn't help but say out loud. He knows what he said earlier this morning was reassuring Jeno he's not forcing him to say anything about it if he's not comfortable with it.

And he knows he's being hypocritical right now. But that's nothing in his mind at the moment, he's too caught up with the situation that all he wants is to hear what Jeno has to say and apologize to the younger later.

"Fine." Jeno licks his lips and glared at him.

"Jisung's your son, alright. He's a hundred percent from you." He starts off, walking around while he fixes a few things on the table to keep himself busy.

He then stops and turns back to the elder, waiting for what more he has to say.

"That party back then." He recalls, and he knows Jaemin remembers it too by how he knits his eyebrows together before blinking and looking back at him.

"I was drunk– wait no, we were drunk. Really, really drunk." He continued, correcting himself along the way.

"To cut it short, we did it without knowing, both too hammered to realize what the actual fuck we were doing. " He said.

He chewed on his lip and trails a finger on his bag, "I woke up, naked and cold in a stranger's bed. Then for some reason, I recalled some features on the person I was with the night before."

"I wasn't sure, but I remembered your goddamn stupid ass face all over me." Jeno snorts forcefully.

Jaemin watches him try to keep himself calm by making his words seem harmless and instead looking at it like it was funny. But they both know Jeno is on edge right now.

"We had two weeks of break, meaning I had time for my symptoms to kick in and for a checkup on it. In short, I was pregnant with Jisung." He sighs and adds. "But I didn't know who the father was."

"Then I got back to school, saw you with some chick like the popular jock that you are back then." The younger paused. He looks at him.

Jaemin's breath hitched when he saw teary eyes, "you looked at me. And I recognized those eyes."

Jeno stammered yet still continued, "it all c-clicked." He bit his lip and took a moment to calm down. Jaemin letting him to do so, which he was slightly thankful of. But he was still embarrassed of the scene he's causing.

He gasps, trying to keep up with his breathing. Looking up, he glares at Jaemin again.

"I fucking hate you." He shakily says before running off to their shared bedroom, shutting and locking the door.