PART - VII - ACCEPTANCE C4/4

He loves me.

He will always love me.

 TWO MONTHS LATER...

“Are you finished?” Hoseok’s pretty redhead poked in my doorway and he took in the room with lightning-fast quickness. “You look finished.”

I stood up from a box I had been taping closed and stretched my back. “I think I am. Taehyung is going to pick me up and carry all this.”

He grinned at me, “Perks of having a loving man.”

I laughed and waggled my eyebrows at him.

He stepped into the room completely. “This year went by so fast. I can’t believe it’s over.”

I smiled wryly, “I can. I’m ready for summer.” I sighed. “I’m ready to actually start summer.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “Why, Jungkook? It’s not like you have a job in the fall. What does it matter to you?”

I laughed as my hand landed gently on my slightly swollen belly. “I didn’t take you for the jealous type. I thought you had a purpose here.”

He stuck his tongue out at me. “Well, mostly my purpose is to annoy my parents. These hoodlums are a side effect of bad judgment and stubborn rebellion.”

“You’re such a liar. You love the kids here. And you’re only half serious about annoying your parents.”

“I’ll give you the kids. I do love the little monsters. But I’m serious about my parents. My life work is to drive them to their early graves and inherit their estate.”

I just shook my head. There was no arguing with him. “I am coming back,” I told him. “Maybe not right away…but I will be back. I can’t walk away from teaching forever.”

His gray gaze found mine and glistened with unshed tears. “I know you will. You’re too good at what you do to give it up forever. You’ll just have to turn that endless inspiration on your own little ones now. They get to keep you for a while. As they should.”

Hearing the sorrow in his tone, I had to assure him. “Good thing they have their Uncle Hoseok to keep it real for them. I’ve been told I’m a little delusional with my optimism at times.”

He let out a bark of laughter, “Who told you that?”

“Mostly my students. The same ones I’m trying to inspire.”

He grinned at me. “You know, this is much better than being bachelors together. I probably would have eventually stabbed you with my crochet hook.”

“We would have made terrible bachelors,” I agreed. “We’re way too hot for cats.”

He snorted. “Because only ugly people have cats?”

“Oh, no. That’s not what I meant.”

He waved me off. “I know what you meant. Your secret hate for people with cats is safe with me.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Well, I am a dog person you know.”

“How could you not be? A dog saved your marriage and knocked you up.”

“The dog did not knock me up.”

He winked at me. “Not what I heard.”

"Well, in a way my wild dog did." And we both fell into fits of laughter. God, I'm definitely going to miss hoseok.

I shook my head and joined him at the door. “I need to check my mailbox.”

He sighed. “I need to go fill out paperwork. Apparently, your powers of inspiration worked better than usual. Chae Yeonjun signed up for summer school.”

“Why?” I gasped. “His grade in my class was excellent. What classes does he have to retake?”

He leaned in as if he were telling a secret. “He’s not retaking anything, Jungkook. He’s taking as many AP classes as I’m going to let him. Apparently, he wants to get into a good school.”

“You’re kidding.”

“I am very serious.”

My smile was so big I practically glowed. Tears filled my eyes and I blamed hormones. I rarely cried under normal circumstances.

Just kidding.

“Good.” I finally said.

“Thought you’d be happy.” We reached the hall where his office was nestled next to the teachers’ lounge. “I’ll call you later, JK? Sunkyun and I are planning a baby shower for you. I need your input.”

“Oh, my god, what is wrong with you?”

“It was her idea.”

“Hoseok, I’m not going through with that. You can’t make me. Besides, last I heard everyone thought I was a drama queen for calling off my divorce.”

He shot me a mischievous grin. “But now that you’re preggers they understand why you called off your divorce. You can’t raise a baby alone. Plus, he got that nice job. Clearly, you’re in it for the big money.”

I groaned. “Do none of them realize there was no possible way for me to know I was pregnant when I called off the divorce? Or that I thought it was literally impossible for me to have a baby? Are they all morons?”

His smile dimmed, “Every last one I’m afraid.”

“And these are people in charge of educating the future leaders. I’m actually afraid.” He laughed at me but didn’t argue. I turned to him and said seriously, “I don’t want to do the baby shower.”

“If only life was all about the things we want to do.”

“You are the worst guidance counselor ever.”

He gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and disappeared into his office, throwing over his shoulder, “You don’t mean that. I saved your marriage!”

I couldn’t help but laugh. He was absolutely ridiculous. And I loved him for it. He might not have saved my marriage, but he definitely saved me when I thought my marriage was over.

Maybe he wasn’t the worst guidance counselor ever. That might have been a slight exaggeration.

I lifted my head and stumbled to a stop when I saw Min Yoongi watching me intently from the table beside our mailboxes.

He was perched on the edge of it, with legs stretched out and ankles crossed. His arms were folded over his chest and his thick-framed glasses were in place, hiding his eyes from me.

“Hello, Mr. Min,” I said, hoping for casual. We had never regained the friendship we’d lost after our inauspicious coffee date. Things had been strained and forced ever since.

It was strange to me because I thought our friendship had been real. But it was hard to sort out now since he had avoided me like the plague ever since he realized I wasn’t interested in him romantically.

And I honestly didn’t want to dissect it too much.

“Hi, Jungkook. How are you?” His smile was genuine, even as his gaze drifted to my small, round belly.

At the end of June, I was only three months along, but there was a small enough bump to make it clear that I was pregnant. The kids had been out of school for three weeks, but teachers still hung around, working in their classrooms or teaching summer school.

I was packing up my classroom, as I would be taking a couple of years off. I had a baby to raise. A family to focus on.

A husband to let take care of me.

“I’m good,” I told him honestly. I allowed a smile and repeated, “I’m really good.”

“You look good, Jungkook.” His head tilted to indicate all of me. Just as I started to feel slightly uncomfortable, he added, “I’ve meant to tell you something, it’s just I’ve always felt a bit awkward about it. But, I wanted to say that I’m happy for you. I really am. I’m glad everything worked out with Taehyung. It was obvious you were never over him.”

My smile stayed in place. I felt his authenticity and I respected it. “Thank you, Yoongi. I appreciate that.”

“Good luck with the baby,” he added. “You’ll be a great father.”

He stood up and strode from the room before I could say anything else. But I found that I didn’t really have anything else to say. It was nice to have that chapter closed, but it hadn’t been necessary.

I did hope the best for him, though. I hoped he could one day move on from his own heartbreak and find someone else. I hoped he could find someone who fit him, who loved him as much as he deserved.

My phone buzzed in my pocket. Taehyung was here. I texted to tell him to meet me in my classroom, then gathered the last papers from my mailbox.

I walked back to my room slowly, savoring the smell of metal lockers and floor polish. There was a mustiness that clung to the building that usually made me wrinkle my nose. But now I realized it smelled like school to me. This was how I would always define Dongho.

And I knew I would miss it.

I had been here for nine years, just a little longer than I had been married. Unlike my marriage, though, it was time to close this door. It was time to move on.

For now.

I thought about Chae Yeonjun and knew I would eventually be back. I couldn’t give this up forever. But for now, it was the right thing to do for my family.

I smiled to myself. God, it felt good to say that.

Taehyung and I have made so much progress over the last three months. Not because we were forcing it because of the baby, but because we both wanted progress. We both wanted to heal and create a safe, comfortable home for our little one.

We both wanted each other and this marriage and real, authentic happiness.

And finally, after everything that had happened, we had it.

In April, we celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary. We had gone out to a nice dinner and shared a bottle of champagne at home. We had never been happier. Never more content to make something work.

Never shared a life that was so beautiful.

Two days later we found out I was pregnant.

Nobody had been more surprised than us when we found out about the baby. But nobody had been more overjoyed either. Taehyung was on his toes all day when I felt nauseating and called for a day off in the middle of my job. He kept making me lemonades and other things for heat stroke. But when the nausea didn’t subside, we headed to the hospital.

God, the way Taehyung teared up and cried like a baby hugging my legs. I could never forget the moment.

We were also seeing a counselor. We wanted to heal from our past and move forward with the tools we needed to succeed. The marriage counseling was going better than we expected. We're slowly working on our issues. The ones we never acknowledged.

I taught my students that knowledge was power. Not because you could rule with it, but because it prepared you for the future and equipped you for whatever was to come.

I had taken that advice to heart and applied it to our marriage. We were growing closer and closer together every day, but there was still a lot of work to be done and neither Taehyung nor I knew what the future would hold.

We wanted to be prepared.

We wanted to be ready to stand side by side and face whatever the world threw at us together.

Sometimes I wondered if I fell in love with him for all the flaws he always had. But I also knew I had wanted to leave him for all those flaws too.

The only thing that mattered now though was that I wanted to stay with him for the love we shared. That we used those flaws to choose to love each other and choose to stay together no matter what obstacles we faced.

I loved him.

I would always choose to love him. And he would do the same for me.

“What are you smiling about?” His voice drifted in from the doorway, where he leaned against the frame watching me.

“You,” I told him honestly. “Us.”

He walked toward me, with a slow, prowling gait that gave me butterflies in all the right places. “Those are good things to smile about.” He reached me, swooping down to kiss my hands that rested on my belly. When he stood up again, his eyes shimmered with adoration, “That’s a good thing to smile about too.”

I leaned into him and wrapped my arms around his waist. His hands held me to him, one of them rubbing a soothing pattern over my back.

“Are you going to miss this place?” he asked gently.

I nodded against his chest. “Yes, eventually. But I’m going to love staying home too. At least for a little while.”

“I’m going to love you staying home too,” he chuckled. “You can make me lunch every day and iron my clothes.”

I pinched his nipple and made him yelp. “You can make your own lunch,” I scolded. “I will iron your clothes, though. It’s cheaper that way.”

He let out a bark of laughter. “It’s true. I get tired of buying new shirts every time I ruin one.”

“You’re a smart man, Taehyungie hyung. I don’t know why you can’t figure out an iron.”

I felt his smile when he pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “It’s just one of the many purposes I need you, Jungkook. Don’t ever leave me.”

I lifted my face to meet his gaze. “Never,” I promised. He squeezed me tighter to him. “I love you.”

His words were powerful. So powerful I felt them in my very core, in the very heart of me. I felt them as something permanent and lasting. I felt them as an oath, an unerring truth… as the conviction I lived my life with.

He was my husband. He loved me.

He would always love me.

That was reason enough for me to love him back. “I love you too.”

He kissed me slowly, lazily and so not appropriate for school. Then he helped me pack up nine years of teaching and we drove home to start the next chapter of our lives.

Together.

!~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~THE END~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!