Work Text:
“Yeon-Jin-ah!”
Everyone stopped talking immediately and looked at Cha-Young in shock.
Across the table, Yeon-Jin stared back at Cha-Young with wide eyes.
“Byeonhosa-nim. Are you okay?” Vincenzo asked worriedly from his seat beside her.
“Yes, I’m … I’m just-- ” Cha-Young trailed off as Yeo-Jin softly shook her head, a quiet plea in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Vincenzo asked again, softly placing his hand on Cha-Young’s back.
The other tenants started to chime in all at once.
“Did something happen?” Mr. Ahn asked, already getting ready to jump into action.
“Byeonhosa-nim, are you hurt?” asked Mr. Nam as he grabbed one of Cha-Young’s hands.
“Tell me who hurt you, I’ll karate chop them into bits!” Cheol-Wook started chopping the air.
Soon, all of Arno was filled with worried questions and threats alike.
Cha-Young felt Vincenzo squeeze her shoulder, looking at her worriedly. She kept her eyes on Yeon-Jin, who was still softly shaking her head.
“It’s nothing”, Cha-Young started. “I just had -- I just -- I just had a little--” The amount of chatter in the room got louder. “I just had a little miscarriage!”
Dead silence.
Cha-Young grimaced at what she just exclaimed, glancing again at Yeon-Jin whose mouth had dropped open in shock.
“What? Are you okay?” she heard Vincenzo ask softly beside her.
“Mamma mia!” exclaimed Chef Toto.
The room was suddenly filled with questions, yet again.
“How far gone are you?”
“I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend!”
“Whose is it?”
“Is it Vincenzo’s?”
“No!” Cha-Young denied vehemently, glancing quickly at Vincenzo whose face appeared to be frozen in shock.
“I -- I don’t know who the father is.”
Cha-Young grimaced again at what she just said, as she heard a few gasps ring out amongst the tenants and a sharp intake of breath from the man sitting beside her.
“We need to go to the hospital!” exclaimed Hee-Soo.
“No, we don’t. She’s fine”, said Yeon-Jin adamantly, glaring at Cha-Young. She pushed the soju glass towards her. “Drink. It’s fine, everything’s alright, it’s gone -- it’s gone .”
“Jagiya”, Cheol-Wook whispered softly to his wife.
Cha-Young shook off her embarrassment and focused on the task at hand. “No, I’m not fine at all. What if it’s not gone?” She pleaded with Yeon-Jin. “We need to go to the hospital right now .”
At this, Vincenzo sprang up.
“Byeonhosa-nim, let’s go. I’ll drive you there. If we hurry, we should make it”, he looked at her in concern.
Cha-Young stood up as well. “Yes, let’s go. Unni, you’ve been reading a lot of pregnancy books. Could you please come with us?”
Yeon-Jin stared at Cha-Young and Vincenzo for a few moments and then sighed softly. She nodded and got up, walking towards Arno’s exit.
“Let’s go”, Vincenzo whispered gently in Cha-Young’s ear. He led her out of Arno, his hand a constant reassuring presence on her back.
“So Yeon-Jin-ssi was the one who had the miscarriage?” asked Vincenzo as he sat down next to Cha-Young and passed her an iced americano.
Her and Vincenzo sat in the waiting room of the private ward where Yeon-Jin was admitted.
Before getting checked in, Yeon-Jin told her to call Cheol-Wook and tell both him and Vincenzo the truth. Cheol-Wook had rushed over as quickly as possible, looking incredibly jittery as Cha-Young explained what happened. It took five minutes for Cha-Young and Vincenzo to calm him down before he went to join his wife in the patient’s room.
Cha-Young nodded. “Yeah, she told me that she thought something was wrong when we both went to the washroom. She was so scared, she didn’t know how to react. She didn’t want to worry Cheol-Wook-ssi either. I managed to convince her to go to the hospital but I guess she changed her mind once she saw how much fun everyone else was having at the restaurant.”
She looked at Vincenzo and grinned. “What? Did you think that I had a miscarriage?” She gave a fake gasp, “were you worried Byeonhosa-nim?”
Vincenzo took a sip of his coffee. “Everyone was worried. You should see all of the texts I’m getting from the tenants. I’ve never gotten this many notifications at once”.
Cha-Young laughed. “That’s literally impossible. I would’ve thought that out of all people, you would know better Byeonhosa-nim.”
“Why would I know better?” Vincenzo looked at Cha-Young in confusion.
It was only then that Cha-Young realized what she just said. Wow, I’m really putting my foot in my mouth today.
She cleared her throat. “Well. I spend practically all of my time with you. Don’t you think you would know if there was a… potential father?” She ended her sentence with a smirk and an exaggerated wink.
“Ahhh”, Vincenzo cleared his throat and looked slightly away in embarrassment. “You don’t spend all of your time with me. I didn’t want to make any assumptions. We never really talk about personal matters like that anyways.”
Cha-Young smiled down at her coffee. “I haven’t had a boyfriend in a while actually. When I was at Wusang I was too busy working. All of the men I met were also way too boring.”
Vincenzo laughed softly at that. He could believe that most people would be too boring for a woman like her.
“As for casual relationships… well that also hasn’t happened in a while.” She bit her lip and avoided his gaze. “Actually, I don’t think there’s been anyone since I met you”.
Vincenzo stayed silent for a few minutes. From the corner of her eye, she could tell he was looking at her.
“I’m glad”, she heard him say, softly.
Cha-Young looked up at him. He was looking at her with a tender gaze and a gentle smile. Her face heated up and she smiled slowly in return.
“Everything’s okay!” A voice shouted from the doorway of the patient’s room. They looked up and saw Cheol-Wook standing there with his arms around a smiling Yeo-Jin.
Cha-Young jumped up and scrambled towards the couple, with Vincenzo trailing behind her. “Omo! Does that mean…?”
The couple grinned and nodded eagerly. “We’re going to be parents!” Cheol-Wook exclaimed. Cha-Young squealed with happiness and Vincenzo patted Cheol-Wook’s back in congratulations.
“Thank you, Cha-Young-ssi for all of your help”, Yeon-Jin held Cha-Young’s hand. “I’ll make sure to clear everything up with the tenants.”
“Ahh, don’t worry about it unni. At least now everyone thinks I’m having some fun”, Cha-Young winked jokingly and giggled with Yeon-Jin.
“Let’s go back to the plaza”, Vincenzo said. “It’s time we celebrated the actual parents.”
As all four of them walked down the hallway, Cha-Young noticed Vincenzo looking at her, a small smile still etched on his face. She grinned back at him.
“Say, Mr. Corn Salad… have you ever wanted to be a godfather?” Cheol-Wook started to ask.