Lamiya was slowly waking up, the dream she was having up until a moment ago now disappearing the same way it’d appeared last night: gently and mysteriously. She already couldn’t remember much, except for the sound of a child’s laughter and the smell of spring grass.

 

She wanted to sink into the dream again, but she felt so well-rested that she knew she wouldn’t be able to do it easily.

 

She slowly opened her eyes, just to be enveloped with the sunlight coming in through the cascade of windows in their bedroom. She rolled around in the bed, her hands trying to find the warm body that should’ve been tangled somewhere in the sheets with her, but they came up empty.

 

She narrowed her eyes, sobering up. He wasn’t usually one to wake up earlier than she did. She suspected that he often even faked being asleep in order to be able to sneak in a kiss when she came over to gently wake him up, but she so didn’t mind that.

 

She raked a hand through her messy hair and sat up, trying to assess the situation. Had he received an urgent call for a meeting or something? It didn’t happen often, but a couple of times he’d been hauled off to his father’s office in order to be up to date with all the happenings in their world, where he was the successor to the throne of a mafia boss. Lucky her.

 

She wouldn’t have started feeling worried, had it not been for the empty nightstand where he usually put notes if he had to leave quickly. Was everything okay? Perhaps another assassination had happened - but Lu had gotten over those things such a long time ago…

 

Lamiya got up quickly, and quickly noticed that the sound of a child’s laughter wasn’t a remnant of her dream but something very real. What was going on? Sehanna was not one to laugh with people whom she didn’t know, so that excluded the possibility of a stranger coming into the house.

 

The sound was coming from the living room, so someone whom they knew must’ve come while she was sleeping. Lamiya struggled not to worry about Sehun’s absence and focused on the matter-at-hand, hoping that whoever the guest was would’ve been able to explain the situation to her. Had he sent someone to guard them while he was gone?

 

She tiptoed her way out of the giant bedroom and through the hallway, stopping at the top of the stairs. Her little daughter was giggling and she could hear the voice of someone talking, distinctly male and sounding very familiar, though she was still too far away to hear anything but a muffled sound.

 

She slowly went down the stairs, looking at the gun that had found its way into her hands the moment she’d gotten up, like Sehun had expertly taught her. She still felt worried, but she knew there was no danger here, so she put the gun into the last drawer of the chest of drawers in the main hallway, making sure to lock it so that Sehanna would not be able to find it.

 

It wasn’t that easy, being the wife of a mafia boss, but she’d gotten used to the unpleasantries a long time ago, like having to fear for your life every single second of the day and sometimes getting shot. Nothing out of the ordinary.

 

The door of the main hall were closed, which was something that never happened when people were inside, unless if it was Sehun’s father discussing his way around the mafia politics with his son - which ended in a fight about Sehun having a son soon more often than not. It was just another part of her everyday life: being pressured to give birth to a son because apparently, daughters were not eligible to be successors to mafia thrones.

 

Lamiya snorted to herself, rolling her eyes. That girl could kick some serious and she’d barely learned how to walk. She would definitely make a better mafia boss than any boy ever could, though Lamiya was not against having a little boy running around the house, too.

 

Sehanna would always be the oldest, though, which meant she’d have to protect her baby siblings, not the other way around. She was already so strong, her little baby, turning all the men who walked around with the big guns and claimed to be heartless into puddles in front of her feet.

 

As she slowly opened the door and peeked inside, she was welcomed by the sight of the biggest puddle in the whole world that did everything her little princess said without any kind of protest.

 

It was a very unusual sight, one she’d witnessed only a few times before and always sneaking around like a ninja because they’d never act like this if they knew she was around. It was their little secret, the relationship the two of them had without Lamiya in the picture, and watching them like this was her own secret, too.

 

Thankfully, the duo was too preoccupied making fools out of themselves to notice her entrance; it might’ve been her stealth skills that did the trick, too, because she managed to hide behind the black leather couch without being seen. They were all acting ridiculous, her daughter laughing like a maniac while trying to do a bridge stretch, which was impossible to do with her small arms and legs, while her husband tried to stifle his own laughs, putting a finger to his lips and shushing her, whispering in a very conspiratory voice, “Hanna, if your mother wakes up, we’re through.”

 

That only seemed to make the little girl laugh harder as her limbs gave out and she fell to the floor, rolling around while her father steadied her frame, probably inspecting whether she’d hurt herself.

 

He’d made such a fuss the first time she’d gotten a bruise: he’d demanded to know who’d kicked her and already speed-dialed his macho comrades to kidnap and torture the life out of the villain.

 

Imagine his surprise when he found out that the said villain turned out to be a kitchen table that Sehanna had bumped into while running from her father who was threatening to eat her for breakfast because she looked so appetizing.

 

And now their kitchen was missing a table, which Lamiya found very ridiculous, but also very endearing at the same time.

 

She was married to such a dork.

 

The said dork was now explaining how to do the bridge stretch very expertly and seriously, either not noticing that his daughter was trying to pull his hand from underneath him or deciding that she was listening closely enough to be able to understand his words. He did expect a bit too much from her sometimes, but then again, Lamiya doubted that he understood that a 2-year-old was very different from a grown-up person at all.

 

“So you steady your hands like this,” he said while Sehanna pulled his index fingers towards herself, “And then you just pull off the ground, and make a bridge.”

 

“Papa,” the baby said as she bit her lip, finally looking away from her father’s hands and into his face, “What’s a brige?”

 

Sehun seemed to have finally realized that teaching a baby such an advanced move was maybe pushing it a bit, because he sighed and came back to the floor, rolling so that he was turned towards Sehanna. “You know what? Forget it,” he said in defeat. “I’ll just go back to being the T-Rex trying to eat you.”

 

He growled then and suddenly sat up, raising his arms to either side of his head and moving towards her very slowly. Lamiya thought every T-Rex in the world would’ve been proud had they seen the newest member of their species, targeting a screaming kid who wobbled as she got up on her small feet and started running away.

 

“Oh!” Sehanna said after a moment, having moved outside of the field of Lamiya’s vision.

 

Then the sound of shattering glass was heard and Lamiya got up from her hiding place, her heart in as she feared that her baby was badly injured.

 

Sehanna was sprawled on the ground, all around her glass shards of the vase she’d kicked with her arm as she fell. There was something round on the ground closeby, unmoving and probably trying to look as inconspicuous as possible but also as terrified as the three persons who were in the room, and Lamiya immediately knew what had happened.

 

Her daughter must’ve tripped on their turtle Leonardo and fell to the ground, taking the vase with her.

 

Lamiya wanted to hurry over to her daughter, but Sehun was already there and cradling their little baby in his arms as he looked her over. She could see Sehanna’s face clearly: she was biting her lip as her eyes watered, trying not to cry while her father removed the glass shards from her body - thankfully, none had gotten through her baby skin, though Lamiya was sure that Sehun’s feet were bleeding, since he always walked around the house with his feet completely bare - and pulled her tightly into his chest, seemingly relieved that she was fine.

 

“It’s okay, baby,” he told her softly, patting her back as she whimpered once, their strong girl, and cried silently into his chest. Lamiya wasn’t sure who he was trying to console - his daughter or himself, because his eyes were tightly closed and Lamiya could see that he was shaking.

 

She remembered that she was still standing like a lamp behind the couch, so she quickly ducked, proud of herself for still managing to be a successful ninja, and moved to the other side of the couch so that she could peek behind the armrest and watch them without being seen.

 

A few minutes passed, and their baby girl sniffed and wiped her nose on her father’s black shirt with the Iron Man sign on it - it was his most favorite homewear and now his daughter was basically ruining it but he didn’t seem to mind at all, instead smiling at her and ruffling her long, curly hair.

 

Lamiya suspected that he wouldn’t have minded it if the little girl cut his heart out of his chest and ran away while giggling, but then again, she couldn’t blame him because she was totally the same way when it came to their little blessing.

 

“Now,” Sehun said playfully as he settled Sehanna in his lap, crossing his legs but still managing to look infernally handsome, even in that plain pyjama bottom, “Let’s see what the criminal who had crossed into the opposite lane has to say for himself, shall we?”

 

Sehanna gasped, shaking her head in panic as Sehun slided them over through the glass shards, making Lamiya worry for his safety but knowing that he wasn’t that oblivious, and to where the poor turtle was probably still trying to understand why a giant human had attacked it while it was walking through the living room.

 

“Daddy, no!” she panicked, turning towards him and grabbing his shirt to stop him from exacting his cruel sentence to the poor animal that had been so careless to make his only daughter cry. “It’s not Leo’s fault-”

 

Sehun tsked, his face a mask of contempt, even though Lamiya found it cute. Could she get a whole movie of such exchanges? She’d pay to be able to watch these every morning.

 

“You cannot save him from his punishment,” Sehun said in what appeared as an angry voice, but she’d been the target of it far too many times to not be able to recognize the note of amusement in it. Meanwhile, Sehanna seemed to be buying the act, terrified as she now began openly crying.

 

“No, papa, no,” she whimpered while Sehun caught the poor turtle with both of his hands, seemingly immune to his daughter’s charms. Lamiya knew that he was dancing around the dangerous edge: if he kept this up for much longer, he’d have to deal with a very loud 2-year-old who could not be calmed down that easily.

 

What was he thinking? Lamiya could not figure it out, deep in thought while Sehun continued with his performance. “I have decided to punish him severely for what he’d done to my baby Hanna. This will teach him a lesson not to walk around so slowly and make my baby trip on him ever again!”

 

With that, he turned poor Leonardo in his hands and put him back on the ground gently while Sehanna sniffed and peeked through her hands, probably expecting him to throw it harshly or perhaps even kill it somehow.

 

Leonardo’s punishment was severe indeed: his head and limbs started peeking out of its shell and he flailed with his arms and legs aimlessly, trying to find the ground but being unable to.

 

Sehanna lowered her hands and started giggling. Her face was a total mess, flushed and tear-stricken and her lower lip swollen from having bitten into it too much, but her smile was the sunlight shining over the whole world as she said her next words. “Daddy, look at Leo! He’s stuck!”

 

Sehun’s mask finally cracked; Lamiya didn’t blame him, because who could stay emotionless in front of such a wonderful human being?

 

She loved him more than anything in the whole world, she loved both of them with her whole heart and she couldn’t help but grin, too, while watching the exchange. Why were there suddenly tears in her eyes? Damn it, now she was even getting emotional when the two gangsters were having so much fun without inviting her to the party.

 

Sehun picked his little girl up and stared at her as he raised her high into the air, still sitting on the ground among the shards. “Is his punishment too mild, young princess?” he said, faking a British accent. “If you are not pleased with it, we can always make it worse for him!”

 

Sehanna was now laughing like a lunatic, coiling in his hands while she shook her head. Sehun then expertly and swiftly brought her down to the ground again, away from the shards and onto the carpet near the fireplace.

 

Then the little girl’s punishment began: Lamiya knew exactly how she felt, because she’d been in the same situation before. Sehun began tickling her cruelly and she began screaming, trying to get away from him but being unable to because he was about a meter and a half taller than her.

 

Again, Lamiya knew exactly what that felt like.

 

Her poor baby laughed and screamed as her father’s laughter joined her own, mixing to create a beautiful melody that would always echo in Lamiya’s head. The whole scene was beautiful: her husband took so much care not to hurt their daughter in any way, only touching her stomach lightly but she seemed to have inherited the sensitivity from her mother, which meant the tickling was a true sweet torture for her.

 

A part of her didn’t want it to ever stop, even as she looked at the poor turtle still struggling to find its way back to its feet a little bit further from where her whole world was resting.

 

After a couple of minutes and Sehanna begging for him to stop, Sehun seemed to have gotten enough fun out of this and he lay down on the carpet, taking his daughter to his chest and kissing her forehead sweetly. They were both sweaty and he definitely didn’t look like the guy who dealt in guns and fought criminals, but rather as a smitten father of a beautiful little girl.

 

Lamiya leaned on the couch’s cold armrest as she watched Sehun caressing Sehanna’s long hair, humming some beautiful melody to himself. The whole world was at peace, and Lamiya did not know if she could ever feel calmer and happier than she did in that moment.

 

“Hanna,” he started in a conspiratory voice after a minute, “There is another criminal we need to bring in front of the face of justice.”

 

Sehanna gasped, putting her hands on as she looked around them. Lamiya narrowed her eyes. This was not good. “Where, pappa?” she whispered back at him.

 

“I don’t know,” he countered as he slowly sat up, still cradling her to his chest and looking around himself. “But I’ve gotten a tip that he’s been in the room for a while, waiting for an opportunity to strike at us.”

 

“What about mommy?” Sehanna whispered, her voice now sounding terrified. “Will she be fine?”

 

Sehun nodded, his face now dead-serious, and Lamiya looked around herself, not noticing anything out of the ordinary. He wouldn’t joke around with something like this, she thought to herself. Had there really been someone else in the room, trying to ruin their lives again?

 

It wouldn’t have been the first time, but they’d never been attacked with Sehanna in the room. If she got caught in the crossfire…

 

Lamiya regretted not taking the gun with her after all.

 

Sehun whispered something as he leaned towards his daughter, his voice too soft for her to be able to hear. He was probably telling her to find a place to hide, and she approved of her husband’s skills, knowing he’d protect all three of them from this assassin who was lurking nearby.

 

Lamiya turned around, trying to assess the situation and looking around, but she could not see anyone lurking in the shadows. The living room was very big, though, and she could not keep an eye on every corner of the room, so she could not be sure.

 

She was watching a conspicuous-looking place next to the lamp and behind the curtains in the far corner of the living room, close to the doorway that led into the kitchen when the assassin striked at her and she screamed, trying to pry his hands off her. She was sure he was going for a suffocating method, and she needed to hold out at least for as long as Sehun was able to take their daughter to safety and come back to help her.

 

But then the assassin began giggling, and it was not the voice of a trained killer, if you excluded the person’s ability to make her die from cuteness and affection. “Gotcha!” Sehanna shouted as she hugged her mother from behind, having jumped on her from the couch to which she’d so unprofessionally turned her back.

 

She was busted. “Pappa, I have the cruminal!” her daughter said victoriously while Lamiya bit her lip, not knowing how she’d worm her way out of this situation.

 

Soon enough, while she was held captive by a pair of 2-year-old arms around her neck threatening her life, the main detective who also happened to be a judge stood in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest.

 

“Now, now,” he began, shaking his head as he looked at her in disapproval. “You see this, baby? She was waiting for a chance to end us both here behind the couch, the villain.”

 

Sehanna nodded eagerly behind her, though Lamiya was pretty sure that she still didn’t know what the word couch meant, but she supported her father wholeheartedly as they ganged up on her.

 

She wasn’t surprised at all.

 

“And what do we do to villains, Hanna?” Sehun asked cruelly, raising an eyebrow.

 

“We kill them!” the girl shouted eagerly, making Lamiya gasp and Sehun laugh. What was he teaching their daughter? She suddenly felt very angry. Was he brainwashing her into becoming a mafia lord herself?

 

Sehun wiped a few stray tears from laughing so intensively as he clutched his stomach. “No, not that, baby,” he said, still unable to stop laughing. “What we did to Leo.”

 

Lamiya turned just in time to see her daughter’s eyes light up with understanding. “We make them stuck!” she shouted again, now raising both of her hands in the air and leaving the criminal she was supposed to guard free to do what she wanted.

 

She caught her daughter immediately, pulling her into her lap. She was now laughing together with Sehun as Sehanna received her second punishment for the day, getting another tickling round from her mother. “So you want to kill me, huh?” Lamiya said playfully, giving up on the tickling as soon as her daughter screamed for the first time, instead kissing her forehead and pulling her up towards her chest.

 

“You two are so cruel.” Lamiya directed her words at Sehun, whose face now mirrored hers while he was watching the two of them interact, full of affection and internal peace. “First you punish poor Leo so severely that he still can’t get back on his feet, and now you’re trying to kill me?”

 

Sehanna just giggled, probably not hearing anything but the part about their turtle, while Sehun raised his eyebrows. “But we are only punishing trespassers,” he said innocently, making her roll her eyes.

 

“I should be punishing you for waking me up. Your laughter can be heard all the way upstairs, you know,” Lamiya said, now grinning at her husband.

 

“Really?” He seemed genuinely surprised, even sorry for doing something so horrible, making her almost start rolling her eyes at him. Lamiya didn’t tell him, but she would’ve preferred waking up to such scenes every day.

 

Sehanna seemed to have gotten tired from their little endeavors, because she nuzzled her face into Lamiya’s neck and her body slumped into her. She would fall asleep soon, Lamiya knew. It was a wonder she’d even had so much energy in the first place, but her daughter kept surprising them every day of their lives.

 

She was the most precious person in the world, and Lamiya hugged her tightly, kissing the top of her head sweetly as she smiled at her husband. “Our little hero has gotten tired,” she whispered, beginning to rock Sehanna gently as the girl yawned. “What do you say we get her to bed?”

 

Sehun seemed to be deep in thought, because all the playfulness was gone from his face and posture. He nodded at her wordlessly, and Lamiya transferred Sehanna from her arms and into her husband’s waiting ones.

 

He began rocking her and humming that beautiful melody again as they got up and exited the living room, Lamiya quickly calling for a maid to clean up the mess and take care of Leo.

 

When she got up the stairs and into Sehanna’s room with pink walls the little girl's father had demanded back before she was even born, all the playfulness disappeared from her posture too, because Sehun was singing a lullaby softly to the girl who looked so safe as he settled her into her bed gently.

 

She could’ve started crying then and there, wondering how she could’ve ever thought that this man was a heartless monster without any feelings for anyone when he cared nothing about his still-bleeding feet and focused only on his daughter who whispered, “Love you, dad,” at him as she rolled around and turned her back towards him.

 

That must’ve meant something to Sehun, who was usually the one who took care of their daughter falling asleep safely, because he leaned in and kissed her forehead again, caressing her hair for the last time and checking whether she was wrapped up in the sheets correctly with her teddy bear tightly hugged to her chest. Then he leaned away from her, seemingly content with the arrangement.

 

Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as Sehun's eyes settled on her and he smiled sweetly at her, revealing something shocking to his wife.

 

His eyes were shining with tears.

 

They did not say a single word as she took his hand and led him back into their bedroom. Lamiya felt as if the magic would shatter if she uttered a single word, so she just stayed silent and made him sit on the bed, his eyes full of some unknown emotion while he watched her go over to one of their enormous dressers, searching for the first aid kit.

 

They were both silent as she took the shards out of his feet, which looked awfully bloody and cut far more than was necessary, and she wondered why she’d even expected for him to be sane and take care not to get cut on the shards when he was anything but.

 

Neither spoke even as she wrapped his feet up with gauze which immediately got red from the blood which would still not stop flowing. Lamiya carefully put his feet back down on the ground one by one, deciding to forbid him from walking at least for the next couple of days.

 

His mafia buddies would have to get through her first if they wanted to make him work while he was like this.

 

She could not get up, though, something in her chest not allowing her to breathe or move away from him as she still looked at his bloody feet, the ultimate witness to his endless love for their daughter, who was half him and half her.

 

Something hurt inside of her and she found herself struggling against tears once again, feeling so bad for not having seen this earlier, for not having cherished him earlier, for having hurt him and for having thought he was an awful person.

 

He was, in fact, an overgrown child that had taken her heart with him the first time she’d seen him, when he’d barged into her pet shop searching for his golden retriever.

 

He did not move an inch as he said something to her, whispering the words of some unknown language only for her to hear.

 

He did not speak in Korean often, except during the times of uttermost intimacy and even then she did not know what the words were supposed to mean. She finally found the bravery to look up at him, just to see him smile again, looking at her as if she was the most beautiful person in the world.

 

She knew that to him, she was that, and her heart constricted even more, leaving her unable to breathe or even function as the tears spilled from her eyes and she closed them, giving up on staying strong.

 

He sank to the floor, kneeling with her and taking her head into his hands, kissing the tears away.

 

He repeated the unknown words as their foreheads touched and she fought a sob. “Narang kaji isseo,” he whispered against her lips, but she did not understand.

 

“Sehun,” she sobbed and then he was kissing her and the constricted feeling in her chest reached its maximum. At the very beginning, she’d turned her head from him. She’d hated him for existing and tried her best to make things as hard for them both as possible. She’d loved another man and hated him for interfering when it wasn't even his fault.

 

But now her heart broke when she began wondering what would’ve happened had it been someone else instead of her, if that woman would’ve been better to him, if she would’ve been able to give him more.

 

His lips slid to her right shoulder, where a scar stood to witness what a fool she’d been in the past. It was her biggest medal and she would’ve done the same thing a million times if she had the ability to turn back time.

 

She’d say Yes every time and fall in love with him again.

 

As their foreheads touched again, she looked into his eyes and found nothing but eternal love inside. He did not blame her for being the person she was at the very beginning. He loved her with his whole being, with the same intensity that burned inside of her as their hands intertwined and their backs hit the bed.

 

“Stay with me,” he whispered before he kissed her again and they were both lost, never able to get enough, never able to burn less intensively for each other. “It means, Stay with me.”

 

나랑 같이 있어.

 

If her lips weren’t busy with showing her husband exactly how much she loved him, she would’ve given him her answer, but she knew that she did not need to voice it.

 

He knew what her answer would always be.

 

Forever.