The stars in the sky are dead

Rory didn’t have anything to add to her friend’s words, so she simply chuckled. She didn’t think she had in her to get pregnant and go through the pains of labor, so Amelia was a warrior to her because she had gone it twice on the same day. “He knows. He’s always known you come first always.” The brunette winked at her friend as she waltzed into Jae’s and Amelia’s house, heading for the kitchen to get them some glasses, only to be stopped midway when Ames mentioned having her non alcoholic beer. “Or you could also give them the formula, babe. One night without breast milk won’t kill them…” But if Ames still wanted to go with the beer, she wouldn’t press it. “Oh, just making things official and giving your invitation to be my maid of honor. I’m so ready to just hit Mexican beaches and rest for entire five days… also getting married, but you know…” She chuckled again.

“Good, he should never forget that, I just hope you don’t think of me when you’re having sex, we are besties but that would be hella weird” She reminded her with a chuckle, knowing they were talking nonsense and that Andy was an angel for being so understanding of their friendship. “Oh but you don’t know that, tomorrow in The Sun’s headlines, ‘new mom kills her two babies with formula’ you never know” And yes, Amelia was maybe exaggerating because she was a new mom and she was freaking out most of the time, but she thought she was following the doctor’s orders and the online community advices in a good way. “I should pretend to be shocked by these news but I already expected it, still, I’m honored” She smiled, hugging her best friend. “Mexican beaches? Bless you, I thought you’d be heading to Dubai or something, this is way closer, when is it?”

“I am actually a terrible liar, so just know that I’m being honest.” Beth smiled. Ever since she had officially begun dating Noah, these little meetings with Jaehyun and Amelia no longer seemed as nervewrecking as they might have been in her head, and she was finally feeling comfortable enough around the blonde to allow herself to just–be herself. t was safe to say though that she wasn’t expecting the hug, still she hugged Amelia back, happy to have made the blonde happy. She rolled her eyes playfully, waving her hand when Amelia mentioned having asked her husband to get these things, then giggled. “Never ask boys to do the work of a woman. They’re dumb dumbs.” Not that she wanted to call Jaehyun dumb… hopefully Amelia would know that she was joking. “Next time, take a picture of them. With two older brothers and lots of male friends, I learned that men work better if they have a visual reference. Or I can always bring you more of these. It gives me an excuse to stop by without Noah because I’m a sucker for babies and I figured you could use the grown up company.”

“I should say that’s a good thing but honestly at my field everyone lies so much” She laughed, Amelia was great at her job and yes, sometimes she exaggerated things and maaaaybe lied  a little, but just a little. “Totally dumb dumbs, but we love them regardless of that, come in, come in” She moved so Beth could walk in, pointing at the little ones’ bedroom. “You want to see the aliens sleeping? They’re so peaceful I almost forget what they look like when hungry” She said guiding her through her house. “That’s a great idea, I should have thought about it sooner, and please, you don’t need any excuse I love your company so feel welcome to stop by whenever you want” She assured her with a soft smile. “Grown up company is deeply appreciated”

Beth chuckled at the blonde, smiling as Jaehyun took Noah to another side of the house and she was left alone with Amelia. After nagging Noah for so long to arrange a visit so she could check in on Amelia and her twins, Beth was definitely happy with this arrangement. “Oh, I bet. Babies are handful… especially newborns. But you look amazing, though. I mean… sure, you look tired, but also amazing.” She smiled. “Thanks for having us, by the way. I um… brought you this?” Since most visitors had probably focused on bringing gifts to the babies, after all, people were used to visiting babies, right? But Beth figured that Amelia needed some attention as well. “It’s nothing much… just a care pack for you with some oils for the stretch marks, a body lotion that helps relaxing for you and the twins, and Yogi tea, which I read that helps with milk production and it helps moms with relaxation as well. I–hope you don’t think I’m being too invasive or anything.”

“And you’re an adorable liar but thank you so much for saying it” Amelia looked nothing like she looked like while at work, but she didn’t care. She was so full of happiness that nothing mattered and she liked Beth enough to feel comfortable around her knowing she looked like a mess. “Oh my God you’re a blessing, you know how many times I’ve asked Jae to bring me these things? But he always says he didn’t know which one to pick and that he forgot and, I get it, we’re not sleeping much so I believe him but thank you, thanks you so much” Amelia hugged her. “Not invasive at all, thank you, i love this”

“I’ll leave the milking part to Jaehyun, thank you very much.” Rory chuckled as she kissed her best friend on the cheek and stepped into the blonde’s hair. “You say as if I didn’t live next door and literally haven’t been spending all of my free time here. My fiance is starting to worry.” She teased. He wasn’t. Andrew wasn’t much of a worrier when it came to their relationship and that was one of Rory’s favorite things about him. “Have you pumped enough milk to survive for the night? Because I brought wine and this.” Rory smiled, handing Amelia a nicely wrapped box with the blonde’s and Jaehyun’s name written on it. It was no surprise that she would be Rory’s maid (in her case, matron) of honor, but the brunette felt like it would be a nice touch to officialize it.

“Don’t even mention it I’m still traumatized about giving birth so I’m not letting him milk me or whatever else in a while” People kept telling her she would all forget about it but it was too soon to even think of anything else right now. “Your fiance should already know that you’re my wife and the reason why I keep a reasonable hygiene, so thank you so much” Rory’s visits let Amelia shower and become a human once in a while. “I have but I doubt it’s enough and you know how I am, so I will drink my non alcoholic beer while you get drunk and tell me all about wedding preparations” Because she was excited about Rory and was pretty sure she would end up eloping and marrying in.... she didn’t know, Dubai? “What’s this?”

“I, uh—hello to you too.” Hyunjin chuckled at the unnecessary amount of oversharing while walking in. Over the course of about a year, things had changed so much. It still felt a bit surreal to think about. Hyunjin went from keeping his visits with Amelia a secret, to her and his brother finally getting back together and getting married. Now, he got to be a proud uncle. And a father that was in a serious relationship of his own. Who would have thought? “You mean I came all this way to visit my niece and nephew, and they’re asleep? What a waste.” Jin smiled, clearly just giving her shit. “I came to visit you too, no worries. But sounds, and looks, like you could use a break. No offense. Sit down, kick your feet up for a bit. Shower. Do whatever you need to do.” Things were finally settling down with work, so Jin felt like he was slowly getting a life back. And Lyla was, well… babies were exhausting to put it bluntly. He couldn’t imagine having the twins full-time. Jae and Amelia had far more patience than Hyunjin did. “If they wake up, I’ll take care of them. What are uncles for, right?”

“Oh, have you not learned that you don’t have to wake babies up? You’re grateful for their sleep and make sure to have a life while they keep their eyes closed. If you wake them up, you’re taking responsibility” Because her lovely twins, the two lights of her life, were adorable, but were also complete monsters whenever someone woke them up. “I could shower real quick, and you know what to do with babies, I’m disappointed you didn’t bring my baby Lyla with you, if I can handle two babies I can definitely handle three” Okay, maybe not, but still, she loved the little one too. “You’re a blessing, I’ll be right back, there’s milk in the fridge if they wake up hungry” She said quickly running to the bathroom since she knew this peace wouldn’t last long and Hyunjin was a gift sent from heaven that would give her the opportunity to look human again.

🐈 Lean against my muse’s side

Amelia giggled when Rory leant against her side, kissing her head. “Okay but seriously, a sunset wedding in a resort shouldn’t be stressing you so much, what is there really to plan? Just have an open bar and all your problems will be fixed” She laughed, giving her another kiss. “Ah, okay, not laughing too hard with two babies fighting for space, that was not a good idea”

😚 Kiss my muse on the cheek

Amelia would not judge Jin for living in a honeymoon phase and being late all the time with the lamest excuses he could come up with. Would she tease him? All the time, but she would not judge him because she was honestly so damn happy that he had found Alex and was making long term plans. So when he kissed her cheek and apologized once again for not being on time, she could only giggle. “At least this time your shirt is buttoned right, although I think you put your jacket backwards, honey, and you might want to cover that hickey” She teased, there was no hickey but it would be fun to see Jin trying to explain that.

🌸 Put a flower in my muse’s hair

“So you’re saying this flower looks better on me than any of my versace dresses?” Amelia said with a giggle, an eyebrow lifted as she looked at her husband in a suspicious way. “I should have met you before developing my expensive taste, who would have known I wouldn’t need anything to impress you” She continued, stopping her words. “Unless..” She furrowed her brows this time, understanding his husband’s brain. “Unless you’re thinking of me wearing nothing but this flower, oh Mr. Choi, you’re so kinky”

“I hate how women are portrayed in general. Can you imagine men having to be pregnant?” It seemed like enough of them whined for no reason, Jinah couldn’t picture those same men having to carry a baby for nine months. There were a lot of things that sort of ventured down that path that infuriated Jinah, like men in politics thinking they had any right to control what a woman did with her body, and she didn’t want to go there. “Okay, good! Ahh, I’m so happy for you guys!” She couldn’t help squeezing Amelia a little tighter before breaking away. “I always thought having twins would be super adorable. You will definitely have your hands full, but it won’t be so bad.” The first few months would probably be the worst. Jinah didn’t doubt Amelia and Jaehyun would have everything under control, though. “Oh? If he isn’t interested, I wouldn’t worry about keeping it present then. But if he’s undecided? You could always settle for a name that could work in Korean that’s also Westernized? That’s what Seok and I did for our little ones.”

“The human race would end, they wouldn’t be able to function during pregnancy and labor? Oh, that would kill them” The thought made her laugh, although she wanted to think Jae would be an exception and would actually be great at being pregnant. “I never thought I would be pregnant at all, you know, it was the reason why I divorced Jae in the first place so this feels like the universe just blessing me and kind of giving me permission to forget how much of a fool I was back then” She still thought about that time at all, regretting not trusting Jae but she hoped to have learned her lesson.  “I don’t think he cares at all, you know how he is, he would give me the world so I think he only follows what I say because he thinks it will make me happy and here I am, thinking about Korean names because I think it will make him happy. I’m just going to ask him what he thinks, maybe he wants to name our aliens Jon or Mary, you know, super american”

Things happened very naturally to Rory. Granted, she took her time with her feelings for Andrew, but maybe they were already there since the beginning… maybe they got stronger with time. What really matters was that they managed to avoid gossip for the most part, and that they were happy together. “And yet, here we are, watching people’s lives in reality shows and talking about them, right?” She chuckled. She was guilty of that too, so it wasn’t like she could be a hypocrite about it. “I promise that was not my intention. I’ve got more important things to do than to rub things on your face. I’ll leave that to Jaehyun… considering you’re pregnant, I’d say he’s very good at rubbing things on you?” The brunette teased, hoping it would get Amelia’s mind off the whole assistant debacle. “It was mostly the whole scientology bullshit if I’m not mistaken.” Rory shrugged. She sighed happily when they arrived at the restaurant and smiled at the hostess, asking for a table for two. She asked if Andrew was around just for the sake of asking since she didn’t want to get in the way of his day. “We’ll keep an eye on them and make sure they arrive in the right time. I’ll make sure to keep track of your blood pressure and things like that, and so you continue having pretty feet, we’ll do spa days every once in a while, deal?”

“It sells, sadly, and as long as there are people willing to sell their lives for other to see, they’ll keep existing” Which for Amelia was really confusing because people like them were the ones who hired them, and the product they were, or made, was something Amelia really hated at times. “Oh shut up!” She laughed at her comment about Jae “I’m not the one taking sexcations every single month, I wonder if you even see the sunlight during your trips!” She really liked to know Rory had found someone like Andrew who seemed to give her exactly the type of relationship she wanted, and she saw her friend happy which was the most importan thing in the world. “God, not again, that stupid religion” She rolled her eyes, it was incredible to hear how controlled some people were over this stupid movement. “Oh a spa sounds amazing, I’m sold, you can kidnap me whenever you want. I might not even miss my feet if you make sure someone in the spa does look at them often, and make them feel good and relaxed”

“Maybe being a scary pregnant woman isn’t all that bad after all.” Rory shrugged innocently. Amelia probably wanted to steer clear of that stereotype, but if it was going to help her have less problems in her career, then maybe she should pull the pregnant card. The thought of her early days with Andrew brought a smile to her lips. It wasn’t like she missed those days. They still talked, even more regularly now that they were living together and engaged, the only difference was that now they didn’t have to hide their relationship because they worked in different places. “Oh… pretty much ever since he joined the hospital? Talk about slow burn, right?” Granted, it also took Rory a while to realize that she wanted more than just sleeping with him, hence why she told him about a year ago that she would not be a mistake. If one night was all they had, she was not going to be labeled as a mistake. That conversation was fairly vivid in her mind. “We did, for a while. People still talked here and there, but since there was nothing concrete to gossip about, they eventually stopped—until I had the miscarriage, but at that point I was already considering leaving so I didn’t care.” She also didn’t have the energy to care about that when she was feeling fairly guilty for making a choice and then have something being taken from her against her will. “His assistant covered for us because she’s an angel. I swear, I love that woman. She takes care of my man like no one.” Not even Rory could be that diligent when it came to Andrew… and she loved Andrew. “They did… I saw it on the news today and was upset because I was rooting for them. Can you imagine? Signing divorce papers that basically say you can’t be seen in public with someone for the next six years?” Rory certainly couldn’t, which only made her hate Tom Cruise even more. “Technically, twins don’t usually complete the 40 weeks of gestation, so we’ve got less than that, honey. And why would I ever lie to you? You won’t be able to see your feet, but you’ll have two aliens to make up for it. Isn’t it worth it?”

Amelia knew Rory’s words made sense but she wished she didn’t have to play that card. She was trying to prove herself not to be a hormonal monster so she didn’t want to give the wrong impression if she could help it. “I’ll consider it” Because she couldn’t make any promises about it. “I remember those days, you started mentioning casual lunches but then you kept mentioning him” Or maybe Amelia just noticed his name being mentioned more, or was it the conversation about the director instead of his name being used? Still, she remembered and she was glad things had taken this direction. “People should really learn not to talk about things that don’t involve them” She worked with gossip, sometimes used it on her advantage in the business, but people having discussed her personal life by others who had no relation to them was simply annoying. “Are you going to rub it on my face again? The fact that he has an amazing assistant?” She joked, chuckling. “I actually can imagine, it’s pretty common in the business, I mean, not as specific as that contract but I’ve seen things that are really hard to believe” It was a shame that they had broken up, she liked them as a couple. “Okay, that’s good, right? Like, as long as they don’t get here too soon. But yeah, the aliens will be worth it, definitely, I’ll just miss my feet, they’re very pretty, I take good care of them”

“Being someone’s dirty little secret is usually something so juicy and yet—you made it sound like it was completely the opposite.” Which Alex was sure it was the case, because from the sound of it, Hyunjin was nothing like a younger brother to the woman. Besides, why would she go back to Jaehyun if she had romantic or sexual feelings to Hyunjin, right? Still, he listened to her in silence, letting her give her piece of advice on their relationship as requested while sipping on his smoothie. “I think we have that in common…” He pondered, tracing the outline of his cup with the tip of his finger. “Hyunjin and I had some communication problems at the beginning. I was unhappy, so I let him go. Lucky for me, he didn’t give up on me–on us, so now here we are.” Alex had to admit that things had changed considerably between them. Hyunjin was much more open now and even though things weren’t perfect, they were far better now. “Oh, wow… Twins?” He raised his brows, surprised. “I mean… that’s a good thing. Double the expenses, but parenthood isn’t something you can learn from books or from watching videos online. It’s a gut feeling. I learned a lot while helping my friend with his daughter. Does that mean I won’t make mistakes when I have kids of my own? Absolutely not. Just trust your gut. And If things get too overwhelming, Jin and I can always take the kids off your hands for the night if you’d like.”

“That’s my talent, I can make everything Jin related sound like the most unsexy thing in the world” She confessed because she truly had a gift to make it sound like Jin was a kid instead of a grown man. She smiled when Alex said in hadn’t given up. “It’s a Choi thing, apparently, they just don’t know how to give up when they have fallen in love, even when they might take a while, they never lose hope” She had been years apart from Jae but he had never stopped loving her, and well, she hadn’t stopped either.  “Double everything” She grinned because things would get truly interesting for her and her husband.  “That’s what I’m trusting on, I mean, I have tons of books and I’ve read some already, but in the end, I think you learn on the road” She agreed with his words, raising an eyebrow as she decided to warn me. “Oh please, you really thought you weren’t on my list already? You’ll be on uncle duty soon, so prepare yourselves”