Ding dong

The doorbell rings, with its sound echoing inside the two storey house which the Park family resides at comes the excitement surging through the owners of the house. Baekhyun, who was busy finishing up some cookies fresh from the oven for his family and anticipated guests, wipes his hands on their kitchen towel and rushes to answer the door.

While walking towards their main door, Baekhyun runs his hand through his hair to make it more presentable having had no time to check his appearance on a mirror since he woke up in the morning, all the while making sure not to trip on Chanhyun’s toys lying about on the floor.

He opens the door to a lovely sight of two beautiful girls looking at him and smiling - one in happiness and the other of shy anticipation. It’s Yoona, the bright two year old daughter of Chanyeol’s favorite sister, Yoora. Chanyeol will say he has no other choice since he doesn’t have any other sister but Baekhyun knows how much he treasures his sister.

“Hey!” Baekhyun can’t help his squeals of excitement remembering the reason why they both are here and why Yoora is carrying with her a pink Barbie backpack. His sister-in-law is dressed in a pink floral dress matching those of her daughter that was shyly hiding behind her knees. Baekhyun coos at the sight of his niece clutching a Rilakkuma doll that has been their latest Christmas gift to her, closely to her chest.

Yoora couldn’t help the snort that came out of her at the look of fondness in Baekhyun’s eyes while staring at her daughter. “You know you really need a daughter of your own, Baek.” Baekhyun flushes at the teasing and chooses to just hug Yoora instead of showing his embarrassment. “Nice to see you, noona.” Baekhyun greets when he pulls away, choosing to kneel down to greet his niece too instead of meeting Yoora’s teasing eyes directed at him.

“Hello, Yoona! Do you remember Uncle Baek?” He whispers, and the child nods and shyly meeting his eyes before hiding once again behind her mother’s knees much to the amusement of the two adults. Yoona, with her voice barely being heard, greets his uncle back as prodded by her mother.

Baekhyun’s smile grows bigger at this, unable to contain his happiness at that. He stands up and beckons the two to come inside, taking the backpack from Yoora at the same time. Yoora gives him a grateful smile at the gesture.

“Thank you so much for doing this for us, Baek.”

Baekhyun shrugs and grins at that. “It’s okay, noona! To be honest, it’s an honor for us to take care of such a lovely child like my beautiful niece.”

Yoora would be accompanying her husband and would be away for two days on a business trip to Busan, seizing the opportunity to have time for themselves having been busy since Yoona had been born. Yoora had asked them a few weeks ago if they could babysit her daughter for this weekend and the two readily agreed. The both of then wanting to help their sister and also wanting to experience what it would be like to have a girl in their house.

Baekhyun is once again cooing at her niece and Yoora couldn’t help fondly rolling her eyes at this as Baekhyun and Chanyeol both denied wanting to have a daughter even if it shows so bad through their actions.

She watches as Baekhyun leads Yoona to the couch and helps her settle down, even picking up her teddy bear when it fell out of her grasp. She just knows how Baekhyun would be so good with a daughter, and from the way he’s Yoona’s hair so gently and lovingly, she also knows their future daughter would be lucky to have Baekhyun and his brother as parents.

“Where is Chanyeol and Chanhyun, Baek?”

Baekhyun hums, and stands up to face Yoora before pointing upstairs, “It’s his turn to give him a bath so he’s in the battlefield right now.” Yoora and Baekhyun guffaws at the image they imagined. “Serves Chanyeol right for being a naughty kid too.”

Yoora winks. But they both know Chanyeol was one of the sweetest kids, and Chanhyun is one too except for his dire dislike with getting wet.

After a few more minutes of catching up, Baekhyun excuses himself to get the snacks he prepared from the kitchen. During this time Chanyeol manages to bathe and dress his squirming and naughty child, Chanhyun, who was very set on making his daddy’s task harder than it already was.

As Baekhyun walks back to the living room, a tray of freshly baked cookies balanced carefully in his hands and welcomed by Yoora and Yoona both, they all hear two sets of giggles sounding nearer to them - one deep and one tingly.

The three occupants of the room looks towards the direction of the giggles and beamed at the sight. Chanyeol is carefully going down the stairs while holding a squirming Chanhyun because his daddy couldn’t stop tickling him on his sides.

“This what you get for being naughty towards daddy, Chanhyunnie.”

“Takes one to know one.” Chanyeol looks up and automatically pouts when he saw his sister trying to make fun of him again. Nothing really changes even if you’ve grown already, does it?

He deposits Chanhyun in Baekhyun’s waiting arms, drops a kiss on his husband’s forehead and goes straight to his niece. “There you are little princess, how have you been? Was my monster of a noona taking care of you well?”? He asks causing his niece to giggle because of the hit Yoora delivered to his head.

“It was well deserved, honey.” Baekhyun is trying hard to contain his laughter at Chanyeol’s begging eyes trained towards him.

Chanyeol drops his hurt facade and laughs because he did deserve that. Everyone also laughs, even Chanhyun who doesn't understand anything and Yoona because her Uncle Chanyeol makes the funniest faces while laughing.

Chanyeol takes Yoona in his arms and settles him on his lap, coddling the baby girl adorably both Yoora and Baekhyun melt at the sight. They all talk about what was latest with their lives while enjoying Baekhyun’s fresh cookies.

After a few minutes they hear a familiar car honk, making everyone aware who is waiting outside their gate. Yoora stands up and fixes the creases on her dress. “Well, I guess this is my cue to leave.”

She goes first to her daughter to give her a hug and a kiss, telling her to behave in her uncles’ company and be kind to her cousin. Next she goes to her in-laws, thanking them and then hugging her nephew. With a final flying kiss, she is gone and the Park family is alone with a beautiful princess sitting on their couch.

Chanyeol and Baekhyun are preparing dinner like teenagers - bickering and snickering at each other’s antics when they heard a sudden cry from the living room where they left the cousins playing on Chanhyun’s play mat. Chanyeol immediately rushes to them, leaving Baekhyun to finish their dinner - worried and antsy.

Chanyeol arrives to the scene of Chanhyun carrying a Rilakkuma doll that was Yoora’s, which explains why the other child was crying. He rushes to his niece and carries her in his arms, gently soothing her and wiping her tears. It hurts to see her crying like this, and it hurts more because his own son was the cause of these tears.

“Hush, Yoora, hush now. Uncle is here.” Chanyeol coos, softly rocking the toddler in his arms.

“Daddy, me too. Carry me!” He feels a tiny tug in his shorts and looking down, he saw Chanhyun reaching up his arms to him. But he can’t.

“Chanhyun not now, baby. Yoona unnie is sad, okay.” His smile towards Chanhyun and internal prayers to make him understand went in vain because a few seconds later Chanhyun was also bursting into tears himself.

Chanyeol closes his eyes, kneels and tries hard to carry the two - one in each arm. Yoora, luckily, has calmed down already and is just resting in the crook of his neck. Baekhyun having finished his chores in the kitchen went to the living room and saw this sight. He swoons at this - warmth, happiness and love overwhelming him. Chanyeol cradling the two toddlers make Baekhyun think they’re ready for this.

Ready for a new addition to their family. He smiles and beckons them to eat, taking Yoona from Chanyeol’s arms when they passed by him. Chanyeol kisses his forehead in thanks.

They each take turns feeding the babies in their table, happy that Yoona is now starting to open up to them and not being shy to her uncles anymore. Chanhyun remains his bubbly self and even, at one time, offered a piece of his banana to his cousin. Both Chanyeol and Baekhyun are proud of this. They were anticipating what Chanhyun’s reaction to another child would be, considering their plans of expanding the family.

So far, Chanhyun has been behaving. Aside from the incident Chanyeol saw earlier, but he shakes his head in denial. He’s sure it was just a misunderstanding on his part. Chanhyun holding Yoona’s rilakkuma and her crying, are both coincidences only right?

Their sleeping arrangement for the night was simple, supposedly, until Chanhyun cried and became unconsolable for both his parents. Chanhyun and Yoona were supposed to share his bed on his room since he’s a toddler himself and doesn’t take up much space. It seems like Chanhyun had other plans, however, and now Chanyeol and Baekhyun had to improvise and take Yoora in their room to sleep in the middle of them. Something they do not mind, to be perfectly honest.

It was all going well until they heard a knock an hour later from Chanhyun asking to sleep in the same room too. The parents willingly agrees, of course, but it what was confusing was Chanhyun’s extreme refusal of sleeping beside his cousin.

“Chanhyun why? She’s your cousin, you should be good friends, okay?”

“No!”

Chanyeol sighs but lets him sleep on his side, whereas Yoona stayed in the middle of him and Baekhyun. He shares a worried look at this behaviour from their child but decides to label it as just a tantrum from a spoiled two year old.

Baekhyun can’t help but worry deep inside though at what this could imply. He decides to give him another chance.

The next day, however, nothing changes in the way Chanhyun interacts with Yoona. He doesn’t talk to her, ignores her and doesn’t let her near his toys. Yoona was close to tears when Chanyeol interv