#najeong

Nayeon's eyes scanned the different types of snacks, trying to remember the ones her sister likes, she glanced to the toddler on her left every few seconds, keeping an eye on him while he examined all the cereals he could see with his small stature.

"Nayeon?" a voice called, one she hadn't heard in years, but she was able to recognize immediately.

"Jihyo." She answered before turning and coming face to face with her.

"How long have you been back in Korea?" was the first thing she asked.

"I um... we just arrived... a couple of days ago." Nayeon said, oddly nervous. Are other members here? "How... How have you been?"

"Good, I've been good." Jihyo looked deep into Nayeon's eyes and didn't waste any time to ask what's been bothering all these years. "What happened, unnie? You just disappeared, no explanation, nothing, it's been what, four years? And not a word from you." Her eyes and voice turned soft. "I missed you. We all miss you."

"I missed you guys too." Nayeon didn't really know what else to say. "It's, uh, actually been around three years.

"Are you back? for good?"

"I'm not sure yet, there's some stuff I-" Nayeon was interrupted by little footsteps.

"Mama, mama!" A little boy came running and held onto Nayeon's leg, struggling to show her a big cereal box.

Nayeon was frozen for a second before shifting her attention to him "Is this the one you want? Good job, baby!" She ruffled his hair causing him to giggle and picked him up so he was eye level with both adults. "Hey, I'd like you to meet someone, this is Jihyo. And Jihyo, this is my son."

Jihyo looked at Nayeon and back at the boy, the older girl could see the shock on Jihyo's face as she processed the new information, however she snapped out of it quickly and spoke to the kid with excitement.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you! What's your name?"

The boy hid his face in Nayeon's neck, still holding the cereal box tightly.

"J.. hyu..." came some muffled sounds.

"Jaehyun! That's your name, isn't it?" Nayeon encouraged him but he simply gave a small nod.

"That's such a cool name!"

"Thanks. " He peeked with one eye and finally looked at Jihyo, who took the chance to ask another question.

"How old are you, Jaehyun?"

The boy said nothing and looked at Nayeon.

"Can you tell her how old you are?"

"-'m woo. " his voice still came out muffled.

"Show her with your fingers. " Nayeon used one of her hands to take the box out of his.

Jaehyun understood and lifted up three small fingers.

"You're still two, buddy, put one finger down." Nayeon gave Jihyo a quick glance and said in a lower voice. "We're still working on that."

He did as he was told and proudly exclaimed "Am two!"

"Woah! two? that's awesome!"

Quick footsteps where soon heard approaching them, and both girls looked in the direction of the sounds.

"Yah! We're about to leave, what's taking you-" Jeongyeon stopped in her tracks, dropping the pack of candies in her hand.

She opened and closed her mouth like a fish before managing to get out a weak "N-nayeon".

"Jeongyeon." was all Nayeon said in return, she didn't trust herself to speak without her voice cracking or tears falling.

"Hi." the toddler spoke and Jeongyeon was instantly very aware of his presence.

"Hello." she said back to him.

An uncomfortable silence enveloped them and Jihyo spoke after a few seconds to break it "Jeongyeon! This is Jaehyun, isn't that a cool name?" she said trying to ease the sudden tension.

Jeongyeon blinked a couple of times, switching her focus between the three pair of eyes staring at her, one nostalgic, one worried and one curious.

"Y-yeah, that's... great."

"I should get going, we got a long list of items to go through" Nayeon threw the cereal box on her cart and placed her son on the kids seat. "Sorry for taking so much of your time." she excused herself and left to another aisle before any of them could even say a proper goodbye.

As she walked away she could feel a thousand emotions going through her, but she was in public, with her son, and she wasn't lying when she said she had a lot of stuff to buy, there was no time to have a breakdown, she could do that later.

"Nayeon! Wait!"

She hesitantly stopped and waited for the younger girl to reach her.

"Yes?"

Jihyo gently touched her arm, making her turn around.

"Can I have your number? I'd like to see you again, catch up, and I know the girls would too, specially Jeongyeon."

Nayeon bit her lip, she knew this was probably a bad idea.

"Sure." She accepted the phone Jihyo handed over, and saved her recently acquired number under 'Nayeonie <3', she couldn't help herself, her former leader always gave her a sense of familiarity, having basically grown up together, along with Jeongyeon. "There you go."

Jihyo took the phone back and typed something, a second later, Nayeon felt her own phone vibrate in her pocket.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"I have to make sure, sorry." She shrugged and offered a small smile.

"No, it's fine, I get it." she laughed and took her phone out, saving Jihyo's number and showing her the screen. "There, saved yours too."

"I'll be calling you, okay?"

"And I'll be waiting, Ji"

"I'll leave you both to your shopping now, take care yeah?" Nayeon saw her doubt for a second before the younger hugged her.

"You too." She hugged the girl back, emotions almost drowning her. "It was nice seeing you, by the way."

Jihyo let go and looked at the toddler sitting on the cart, sucking on his thumb.

"Bye, have fun!" she waved at him.

"Bye-bye!" he waved back with a big smile showing off small yet noticeable bunny teeth.

Jihyo walked away and Nayeon was left again only with her son.

Yup, this had definitely been a bad idea. She was hoping to cross paths with her ex members, but this was too soon. Would they even want to ser her again? What if they hated her?

And Jeongyeon... jesus christ, seeing her after all those years... something inside Nayeon told her to run, escape again, change her number and make sure no one's able to reach her or even know of her whereabouts.