Why don't you tell me what's going on?

 "You look so tired," Chewy didn't know what else to say. He guessed if he'd told Chai he looked like shit, Daisy would giggle and start saying the bad word. She was very alert in this way.

She got into the snacks again and there were cookies on the kitchen floor. Chewy went to clean it up and to clean her up as well.

"Why do you have to be so wild?" He asked carrying her to the bathroom to wash her chocolate face and hands. Naturally, this was all Louie and Sunny's fault. They brought this at Christmas and then Chai wouldn't let her have it. But she could figure out how to climb up to the counter and open the cupboard. At this rate she'd be in the circus, he thought.

She laughed, pulling away from him. She was so strong. They both almost fell in the floor but he pulled her up and cleaned her face. 

"You need to be a good girl. You have to take care of us, not run from us," Chewy sighed. 

His arms ached from all the carrying. Maybe they all were coming down with something, but Daisy was the wayward toddler who must have a superpower from not getting sick. And to think she liked to put her mouth on tables and chairs whenever she got a chance.

Chewy yawned but got up with her and danced around with her as if he was recharged, singing some trotter song he remembered his own grandmother singing. It was more of a hum because he couldn't remember the words. Before he knew it, she was asleep on his shoulder so he carefully, put her in her crib in Chai's room. He looked to the other bedroom which was her mother's. The door was shut.

He looked back in the livingroom. Chai was on the couch practically shivering. Chewy went to put on the electric kettle and then decided to peek into the room.

There was nothing. Well, a bed, but it was bare. Not a trace of Daisy's mother. Chewy scrunched a face of disapproval. Would Chai have ever told him? 

He went to make tea and brought it to Chai. "Drink this," he ordered.

Chai was half asleep but sat up as if he were taking medicine.

"She's not coming back, is she?"

"Maybe someday."

"Just not this year." 

Chewy sat on the couch, but not next to Chai. No way did he want to get sick. 

"You got to do something about this, you know." Chewy pressed his lips to an even thin line and stared at Chai.

"What am I going to do?"

"Well, is she going to send child support?"

"Oh." 

He drank the hot tea, as it was cooling in the apartment that wasn't well heated. "It's just..it's just.. it's all my fault."

"You didn't do anything," Chewy squinted.

"I'm trying to do what's right. I am." Chai nodded, trying to explain how he was Daisy's guardian.

"But she has a mother," Chewy snapped.

"Well, if it wasn't for me, Den might be around," Chai sighed. "If he hadn't taken all those sleeping pills-"

"You have to stop saying it's your fault."

"He was my best friend. I thought we'd always be, you know, together. I had known him since middle school."

"Oh, so you two were, what's that word people still don't like to talk about around here?" Chewy tilted his head as if maybe something gay was going on in Seoul.

"No. He. We were studying computer programming," Chai told him. "Maybe it wasn't the best major after all. I dunno. But we supported each other. And then..well, I just wanted him to be happy, and I thought he was happy. I didn't even know we were an US until she told me. I just wanted both of us to be successful. Of course, there was always the noodle shop."

"She made you feel bad, didn't she? She blamed you," Chewy had picked up on this. Daisy's mother would hardly say a word to him.

"It's not going to do me any good to go down that road, OK." Chai looked so lost.

"Look, Daisy definitely needs to be potty trained," Chewy crossed his arms as if he wouldn't speak of the past. "She needs her own room."

Chai nodded as if he was working on it. Chewy decided he was here to help and this shortlist would start today.