The blonde gave her boyfriend a playful hit from his laughter, pretending to be mad only to break the facade in less than five seconds. “Hopefully in that time you’ll get to be around me more than her, though, right?” she smirked playfully. On most days she would’ve joked around with him with his question, but the knots in her stomach prevented her from doing so at the time. She was so distracted my her own nerves that were riding higher than they had been lately that she was somewhat caught off guard by Jaylen’s touch. With the brush of his thumb, however, a calming smile tempted to pull at the corners of her mouth. Her eyes slid shut as she listened to his words of reassurance, turning into his palm to deliver soft kisses, humming softly in content as she did so. As he told her everything that seemed genuinely too good to hear. But the best part of it was that it wasn’t, the best part was that Jaylen would never lie to her about things like that. He hadn’t and he wouldn’t. Areum had learned that by now with no doubt. The blonde was so encapsulated with everything that he was telling her that when he threw in about her sister, it caught her more off guard than would’ve been expected. Pulling away from his hand, she tried to cover immediate snort the best she could, only half working. She noticed this drew some attention from her daughter, the toddler giving her mother a questionable look from the sound she emitted. Running her hand on the back of the girl’s head, Areum used her free one to seek out Jaylen’s, intertwining their fingers like they had done so many times before. Bringing her forehead to the man’s, letting hers rest on his own, she gave a quick peck to his nose before smiling. “Of course I do,” she stated matter-of-factly. “I know how much of a good change you’ve been to not only my life but-” she motioned toward Athena, not letting their simple yet strong touch go, “she loves you so much, too, Jay. Like she can’t say it, but she’s never looked at anyone else that way. I mean the closest it ever was was-” she cut herself off, not sure if she wanted to say his name. The topic seemed such taboo for the couple, and though she didn’t want it to be that way, she didn’t want anything to be that way for them, it was still there. There was a heavy sigh that released from her chest as she realized that it was brought up however, somehow just avoiding it to be the better answer. When she found the father of her child, she was so incredibly happy she did, and he so obviously loved her so much. But when he disappeared, she wasn’t sure how to react. He had spoke of wanting to leave Brighton, which she was hesitant for but she wanted him to be happy, even if that meant it’d be a bit more complicated for their girl. She hadn’t heard from him, though, and she didn’t want to be mad or blame anything on him because she had no room to talk, but still. Here was this little girl, who was lucky enough to have a man in her life that wasn’t even her own father, but what exactly did that even make the man to her? “You haven’t heard from him at all have you?” she asked quietly.
