En woke up after coming home late last night. His meeting with Annie solidified his resolve in being a better father for his daughter, Naminé. The young man shuffled around his bed, trying to shield his eyes from the peering light that seeped into his room. En threw aside his bed sheets, hearing something make a noise when it fell off.
"This is going to be tougher than I thought..." he remarked, picking up the wedding ring that fell off his bed. En smiled at the wedding ring that was Annie's, so much so that he wanted to buy a chain for it. In that way, En felt like he would always be closer to his wife.
"Rise and shine baby girl!" En cheerfully picked up his sleeping daughter and carried the child downstairs. Joe greeted his son and granddaughter coming down from upstairs a good morning. The older man was making breakfast for him and his son, while En on the other hand started to prepare Naminé's bottle.
"You look more chipper than you did yesterday." Joe pointed out nonchalantly. En chuckled at this, nodding along in agreement with his father.
"I'll be the best dad I can be for my kid, Pops!" En replied.
The small family of three sat around the table and ate breakfast. En made sure to feed Naminé before he would eat his own breakfast. Thankfully for En, he was on maternity leave for now. Work didn't had to come and take some space in the young man's mind for the time being.
After he finished feeding Naminé, En carried the little girl in his arms and started to gently rock her to sleep. An idea made itself in En's mind. He sung out a lullaby for his daughter to help her sleep better.
"And I would do it for you, for you ~ " En was singing softly to his daughter. A tender moment between the father-daughter pair. Joe had a smirk on his face while he was doing the dishes.
"I'm mighty proud of the man you're becoming, En..." he murmured. En went upstairs inside his room. He was still softly singing to his daughter by then.
"Baby, I'm not moving on... I'll love you long after you're gone ~ " A smile was stuck on the young man's face when he saw the contented happy look that his daughter had while she slept peacefully. En took a deep breath and sat nearby his desk.
"Right... Time to go do some daddy-work." En fished out his phone from his pockets and called Hiso.
[Hello, what's up nerd?] Hiso teased when she picked up her phone. En replied with a dry chuckle, annoyed at his friend.
"Hey so uh... How frequently do I have to bring over Naminé to go see the doctor's and stuff?" the young man asked.
There was a pause in Hiso's line. En heard shuffling and a few counter arguments hurled by Hiso towards someone in the room that she was in. A few moments later, Hiso replied.
[You're supposed to take her at least twice a month for the vaccine shots and stuff. Did you ask Minho and the others about it? I'm not so sure on taking care of babies...] The woman admitted with a sigh. En hummed and thanked his friend.
"Alright that sounds good, thanks Hiso! Be sure to drop by whenever you're free to, I might need a sitter sometime." He teased, earning him a dry chuckle from the other line of the phone.
[In your dreams, En. But knowing you, I guess you can call me on Saturdays if you ever need a sitter to take care of Naminé] She replied. En fist-pumped and kept thanking Hiso again.
"Thanks Hiso! You're the best!" the young man replied.
[Don't push it, Milburn. I'm only doing this for my goddaughter.] Hiso laughed before ending the phone call with En.
"That's the first time in a while that she called me that..." En remarked.
En Milburn, a twenty-two year-old man being told off by Annie's bestfriend. It was almost comical being in his situation. En was reading a bunch of parenthood books online whenever he had the time to. For the young man, he wanted to do everything right for the sake of his daughter.
Annie's ring glinted brightly on En's desk. The afternoon sun was perfectly lighting it. He reached for the ring and frowned a little. Yesterday's events still somewhat bothered the young man. He wasn't so sure if Annie was haunting him, or if the Annie that he met up with last night was a figment of his imagination. Needless to say, a lot of questions spurred up inside En's mind.
"Knock, knock..." Joe greeted from the other side of the room. He stood outside En's doorway while holding out a list of things on his other hand.
"Oh hey there, Pops. Do you need anything?" En asked. Joe nodded and handed En a list of things that they needed.
En went outside their house to buy the things that they needed. Joe watched Naminé while he was away. Now was the right time for En to ponder about the things that were stuck in his mind. The young man kept pacing back and forth across the aisle on the supermarket. Clearly lost and out of it.
"I can't even find it here - " En bumped into a woman while walking around and not paying attention to his surroundings. The woman was pushed aside and lightly bumped onto some pasta while eyeing En with a scowl.
"You should really watch where you're going there, buddy." The woman scolded En. He peered up from his list and noticed the young woman from across him. She had bright-green eyes and curly auburn hair. En was flabbergasted at the beautiful woman that was clearly peeved off by his rudeness from earlier.
"Okay then... I'll get going now." The woman added, lifting up her basket and walked away.
"Hey, do you know where I can find some canned peaches around here?" En asked. The woman stopped and clicked her tongue, moments later, she gestured for En to follow her as she was making her way towards the counter.
"Did you had a lot to drink last night?" she asks En while they were making their way towards a straight path. En shook his head and lightly made fun of himself earlier.
"Oh that...? I guess you can say that I had a lot in my plate." The young man replied. The woman hummed in response. En on the other hand, felt strangely comfortable around the woman who was making light jokes at him while they were searching for the canned peaches.
"I'm Audrey, by the way." The woman took a liking to En. They were conversing about which fruit looked the funniest when she decided to introduce herself. En shook her hand and introduced himself in turn.
"I'm En, En Milburn." the young man replied. Audrey smiled back, eventually stopping nearby a shelf of canned goods to pick up the canned peaches that En was looking for.
"Here ya go, Milburn." Audrey tossed the can of peaches towards En before taking her leave.
"Thanks! I'll see you when I see you then!" He replied. Audrey finger-saluted him as she was walking away.
En admitted that it was a nice change of pace. He sat down on one of the tables in the food court area when he felt hungry. The young man made his way onto one of the stalls to buy some food, bumping into Audrey in the process.
"Oh... It's you again! Huh, would you look at that, so you do have the habit of bumping into people randomly." Audrey teased. En scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment and coughed into his hand.
"Do you come here often?" he asks. Audrey shook her head whilst taking out some money in her wallet to pay for her food.
"Not as much as I used to when my Dad was still around. Me and him used to go do the grocery shopping for our family when I was younger." En could've sworn that he heard a faint hint of disappointment in Audrey's voice. He didn't want to pry, opting to stay silent about it instead. He eventually got his order of food and sat down with Audrey who was also alone.
"Mind if I sit here?" He joked. Audrey rolled her eyes and threw a fry towards En.
"You already are!" She faked-whined, chuckling at En.
"Did you get everything that you need?" She asks. En nodded back and did a do-over on his list just to be sure that he bought everything that his father asked him to.
"Do you usually do this?" En asks out of curiosity. Audrey eyed him and smirked back at the young man.
"Eating with random strangers who rudely bumped into me?" She teased, earning a quick-apology from En.
"I said I was sorry!" He argued, feeling more ashamed by the second.
En and Audrey soon find themselves stuck under a bus stop when none of them remembered to bring an umbrella. En could only mentally kick himself when he stubbornly refused to believe the weather reports on the news that day. The torrential downpour of the rain made the two adults succumb in despair,
"Don't they sell umbrellas nearby?" En tried to lighten up the mood. The young woman agreed to look around with En for anyone who sold umbrellas nearby.
"That was the last one..." Audrey had a defeated look upon spotting the empty rack. The two of them both decided that it was best to wait out the rain instead of making a run for it. A nearby food stall that sold noodles became their place of choice to eat when it got late into the downpour.
"How do you even learn to use these?!" En tried to hide his laughter upon hearing the annoyed grunts that Audrey made. The young woman was struggling to eat noodles with her chopsticks, eliciting some snide snickers from En's part.
"Audrey, how about using a fork instead?" The woman grabbed the fork that the food stall owner offered and nudged back at En in retaliation.
"My home town back in Scotland never had any places like these." Audrey fondly spoke of her time back in her hometown to En. The Scottish woman's accent was the dead give-away that made En think she wasn't from Canada.
"What brought you here to Westport then?" En asks.
"I wanted to travel around the world ever since I was young. My dad once went on a trip overseas and then the rest was history, the day after he came back from his trip he gave me a post card of this place." She replied.
The heavy downpour soon wore down and came to a light drizzle. Most of the street lamps were lit at the time, making the place that they were staying in look brighter and more colorful.
"This was nice, thanks for the day Audrey." En held out his hand with a smile towards the young woman.
"You too." She replied. Their respective buses soon arrived, parting the two adults that barely met earlier that day.
~ To Be Continued
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