Seohyun sensed that something was wrong Soojin when she picked her up from school. Her face wasn’t as bright as it usually was, but she would still smile at her mom. She knew that something was really off when her daughter didn’t move from her position after placing her little hand in hers before they crossed the street to walk to her car.

“Mommy, can we please get ice cream today?”

“Yep, something’s not right,” she thought. She just smiled at her daughter instead of telling her no, which was her usual answer followed by an explanation that he has to eat a meal first before she could get the cold dessert. “Let’s go,” she pulled her daughter to direct her to the convenience store found at the end of the block.

Soojin smiled brightly in excitement that her mother agreed. “Thank you, mommy!”

“How was your day, sweetie,” she started the conversation in hopes of it being treated later with the cold treat. “Anything new today at school?”

“Mommy, are ghosts real?”

“What?”

“My classmate told me that the reason why they always keep the light on in our classroom is because ghosts will come.”

“That’s not true, honey.”

“But she said that is why the lights are always on, especially in their house because there are ghosts if the lights are out.”

“No, sweetie. That’s not real, remember halloween where everyone gets to wear spooky snd weird outfits? That’s the only thing that your classmate saw.”

“So someone just dressed up in their house and she got scared?”

“Yes, baby. They’re not real. They’re just costumes that anyone can wear to scare people.”

“Oh, alright.” Little by little, the light in her eyes was starting to be bright again. “I thought they’re real mommy. It really made me scared because I thought what she said was true.”

She opened the door of the store and let themselves in. She was just grateful that they had this conversation right before she had her ice cream. “My Soojin doesn’t have to worry about that because I know the perfect medicine to make you feel better.” She looked down at her daughter and smiled.

“What is it, mommy?”

“Just like what you wanted-- ice cream.” She laughed before picking her up to help her choose what she wanted from the freezer.

After telling her mom what she wanted from the freezer, she noticed that her mom only got ice cream for her. She knows that her mom isn’t much of a sweet tooth, but there are days when she would have her fair share, it’s just that today wasn’t one of those days. “Let’s get for daddy, too!”

“How sure are you that your dad likes ice cream?”

“No one doesn’t like ice cream, mommy.”

“Alright, alright.” The kids was right, even people like her who weren’t big on sweets would still have their ice cream even if it was only once in a blue moon. After grabbing another piece of ice cream for Kyuhyun, they went to the counter to pay for everything and helped her daughter to unwrap her ice cream. The pair walked outside, retracing their steps as the little girl happily ate her ice cream before crossing the street to ride their car and head home.

 

Soojin was happily dancing and singing along to the animated musical movie in her pajamas, while her mom was almost finished with preparing dinner in the kitchen. A few moments later, a shriek was heard in their house and Seohyun immediately ran to her daughter to see what was wrong.

“Mommy,” the little girl exclaimed as she was running to her mom as well.

“Soojin, what happened, baby?! Are you okay?! What’s wrong?!” She was frantic and looked for any changes in her skin, but before she could thoroughly inspect her, her neck was already enveloped in a tight embrace by her daughter.

“Mommy, there was monster on TV.” She started weeping as she hid her face in her mom’s neck to keep herself safe from anything scary.

As she inspected the TV, she saw a commercial for the upcoming movies for the weekend and noticed that it’s Monster House, with a man who looks like Gollum from Lord of the Rings. “Great, this is just what she needed,” she thought in frustration. She immediately changed the channel to a much friendlier channel. “There, all better.” She planted a kiss on her cheek and brushed her hair with her hand.

Soojin was still in carried by her mother, not wanting to let go. She shook her head and rested her head on her mom’s shoulder. “I don’t wanna be left here mommy.

This didn’t give a Seohyun any other choice, but to take her with her to the kitchen. She switched the TV off and finished whatever she was doing in the kitchen with the five year old in her arms.

“Mommy, can we listen to Disney songs?”

She pulled herself back to look at her with a huge smile. “I’d love that.” She knew that her daughter only preferred a certain playlist; the Disney Princesses.

Kyuhun walked in with the aroma of food and music, both coming from the kitchen. As he placed his briefcase on the chair, he saw the mother-daughter duo waltzing around the kitchen. He decided to watch closely, but didn’t say a word to not ruin the moment. Shortly after, his presence became known.

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Daddy!” Soojin ran to her dad and gave him a hug, and she was instantly carried by the man.

“What’s with the waltzing, Princess Soojin?”

“Oh, nothing daddy.” She formed crescents in her eyes as she smiled at her father. “I just decided that it would be more fun to be in the kitchen with mommy than watch TV.”

He looked at the woman who had her arms crossed over her chest as she leaned by the pantry door.

“I’ll tell you later,” she said softly, but making sure that she was enunciating each word properly just in case he didn’t hear.

He nodded and immediately got the message and just gave her a thumb up. “Can daddy have this dance with you?” He asked the little girl in his arms and she nodded happily. He waltzed around without letting go of Soojin and just carried her.

Seohyun smiled at this scene, then went on to prepare the food from the pot to the plates.

“Daddy, what about mommy,” she whispered in his ear.

“Just promise that you won’t let go of your hold around me, alright?” After the girl gave her dad a nod, he waited until Seohyun’s hands were free from doing anything and that the wooden spoon from her hold was empty.

She was about to scoop more food, but she was pulled from the waist by the man of the house, which left her surprised, but as soon as she realized that he was waltzing, she rolled her eyes at him. However, instead of letting go and complaining she went along and waltzed with him around the kitchen.

He smiled as he watched her reactions from being taken by surprise, to her furrowed brows, to her eye roll, and shaking her head before letting out a small laugh with them dancing around the kitchen.

Soojin noticed the wooden spoon that her mother used in cooking sticking out from the side as she was still carried by her dad. This made her take the wooden spoon from her mom’s hand and she just held on to it and started using it to conduct the music that was playing from her mother’s phone.

Seohyun was once again shocked, then laughed at her daughter’s gestures. She could only shake her head and smiled as she watched her.

His eyes were gazing upon hers and she was looking so lovingly to the child, yet she was worried at the same time. They will definitely have to talk about this, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment now especially that the song was already ending.

As the song ended, Soojin looked at her parents and saw them just standing in front of each other and looking at each other’s eyes without saying a word. The next song already played, but they remained in that state. Her mischievous side showed when she placed the wooden spoon between their line of vision, as of cutting an invisible line and blocked their eyes from one another. “It’s the next song already.”

“Right,” Seohyun cleared before raising her hand to try and grab the thing from her daughter’s hold. “and I’ll be taking this.”

He put the little girl down and asked her to wait at the dining table, while he got busy to help her with getting ready for dinner.

 

As they were tucking her in, she was grateful that she fell asleep before they brought her to bed. Thanks to her dad tickling her so much earlier after dinner.

The adults quietly left her room and headed straight to theirs. Seohyun was already settle on the bed, while Kyuhyun was on the floor.

“So, what happened today?”

“There was this girl at school who told her that ghosts exist and they always come out when you leave the lights out. She already felt better after I explained that they were not real, but she saw a scary cartoon commercial on TV this evening and she screamed so loud. She didn’t want to be left alone in the living room, so that’s the whole picture.”

“The whole reason for today’s clinginess?”

“Yeah.”

He yawned in exhaustion and he immediately closed his eyes. “You did a great job today, Joohyun,” he said to her with obvious tiredness in his voice.

Sometimes she felt bad he would have to sleep on the floor, but that was the closest they could get to close off their boundaries. “Thank you, you didn’t do bad yourself today, Kyu. Considering you didn’t even know at first.”

He sat up from his position and looked at her on the bed. “That makes me a great dad, right? And I can tell you also liked waltzing with me.” He smiled mischievously, but instead of hearing a compliment, he was only hit by a pillow on his face

“Go to sleep now, I thought you were already tired. I need to get my sleep now.” She turned her back against him and faced the other way

He only chuckled and just as he was getting ready to sleep, the door flung open.

The adults sharing the bedroom both sat up to see what it was, but Seohyun was advised to stay down by Kyuhyun, and his arm was already on top of the bed, ready to protect the other whatever happens.

“MOMMY!”

“Oh no,” she said in fear. She already had a bit of a feeling that this would happen.

Soojin was standing by the doorway and biting on her lower lip, fully awake, opposite from the state that they last saw her in just a few moments ago. “Mommy, daddy, can I please sleep here?” She didn’t have to explain because the shakiness in her voice gave it away that was really scared tonight.

“Come here,” Seohyun said as she patted the spot that was next to her.

She quickly closed the door, then she immediately ran to the bed. However on her way there, she tripped on something and squealed. “Monster, monster!”

Kyuhyun, who was in pain was holding on to his leg and trying to ease the pain on the part where the girl stepped on. 

Seohyun heard him kept his anguish to himself and saw him in pain, despite the light from the outside only mildly illuminating the room. She could no longer help but open the bedside lamp to show the child the reality. “Soojin there was no monster. You stepped on your dad, sweetie.”

The girl felt bad and went to her dad to give him a hug and apologize. “Daddy, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she said through tears.

“It’s nothing, baby. I’m alright,” he stopped massaging his leg and returned the hug. He tried getting up to carry her, but his leg was still in pain. Instead, he just swayed her from side to side to try and make her stop crying.

The woman was observing his leg, then sat beside him on the floor with them to run her hand through the little girl’s back. “Sweetie, it’s okay. There are no monsters or ghosts in this house.” They only allowed her to cry and release all of her fears and frustrations instead of telling her to stop.

As she started to become quiet, the dad only gave her a kiss on the cheek and smoothed her hair with his hand. “It’s alright, our Soojin. Daddy’s not mad, I still love you.”

She tightened her hug around her dad’s neck, until it slowly became got loose and with that, her head got heavy. The girl fell asleep after crying so much in her dad’s arms.

He tried to stand and carry her to place her on the bed, but an had gently pushed his chest, simply telling him not to.

“No,” she simply said to him with a stern voice. She took the girl from his arms and laid her on the bed, covering her with the duvet. She switched the lamp off, then headed towards the door, and left the room.

He watched her leave, but instead of asking, he just shrugged and went to lay back down on his makeshift sleeping arrangements on the floor.

Seohyun went back, quietly closing the door behind her, and went to sit on the floor beside his leg and lifted his duvet to expose the part that was caught in the accident a few moments ago.

Kyuhyun was shocked to feel something cold press on the skin of his leg and made him shot up from his position. “Are you trying to perform surgery on me?!”

“Don’t overreact so much, you’ll only have a bruise, not a broken bone or any other life threatening condition. And if it was, I’d inform you.”

“Then what if I’m unconscious, an immediate family member would have to decide for me, right?”

“Seems like you already know. You’re a lawyer, so why do you have to ask me?”

“Because the wife is the immediate family member.” He smirked at her after his remark.

“Shut up!” She placed the ice pack from his leg to his mouth.

“Hey, you’ll be adding more damage!” He grabbed her her hand with the ice pack and placed it on site of the maimed area.

“You’re overreacting too much, that’s just the foot of a five year old.”

“Then why did you instinctively went to get an ice pack when you know that I’ll only have a bruise there?”

“Would you rather have an extremely painful leg and a huge bluish-purple bruise, or just a mild bruising?” She was about to get up and leave him with his ice pack on the floor, but he grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. “What now?!” They were talking in a soft voice that nearly sounded like whispers to avoid interrupting the slumber of the child on the bed.

“Where are you going? You can’t just leave me here!”

“What are you, a toddler? You can hold the ice pack yourself, Atty. Cho.”

“What if things get worse, Dr. Seo? Aren’t you supposed to observe me?”

“I’ve already observed that you were struggling to use your leg earlier, so I know the easiest fix. Now, be a grown up and hold that thing yourself!” She stood up and went to her spot on the bed, leaving him on his spot on the floor, with the icepack placed on the floor, beside that part on his leg.

“Seo Juhyun,” he screamed in a whisper.

“One more and you’ll be saying hello to anesthesia on that mouth of yours.” She said from the bed, before lying down and wrapping her arm around Soojin.

Kyuhyun only chuckled by himself on his sleeping arrangements on the floor. He really enjoyed bickering with her, except when she’s really tired and hadn’t eaten the whole day because in those cases, she’s just someone that you wouldn’t want to mess with.

“Mommy,” Soojin’s small voice was suddenly heard before she turned to face her mom.

“Yes, honey, what’s wrong?” She placed a strand of hair behind her ear.

“Why is daddy on the floor?”

“Well, sometimes I move around in my sleep and there times when I’d hurt your mom, so this is the safest option and if ever someone invades the house, it’s easier for me to protect you both because I’m on the floor.” Thankfully, he was very attentive and the night was really silent.

Soojin sat up and tilted over to the side of the bed to look at her dad, while Seohyun pulled her back through the her top to keep her from falling. “Daddy, can you please stay beside me tonight? I will feel much safer with you and mommy beside me.”

Her eyes widened with the five year old’s question to the man on the floor. She was looking at the man who was looking at her, hoping to help him come up with an alibi. However, she just stretched her neck to the other side, signaling him to join them on the bed.

“Aright,” he said before standing up. The two scooted over to make more room for him on the king sized bed. He got under the covers and laid down flatly on his back, then a tiny arm instantly found its way around his arm.

She clung onto her father’s arm tight as soon as he got under the covers with them and rested her head on his arm, hiding her face. “I love you daddy, good night.”

He removed some of the hair that was covering the side of her face, then kissed her crown. “Good night, Soojin and daddy always loves you.”

“Good night, mommy. I love you,” she said almost in a mumble, because her face was hidden.

She gently brushed her hair with her hand, making the little girl even sleepier than she already was. “I love you, sweetie. Good night.” She shifted her position sideways to wrap an arm around her.

It only took a couple of seconds before Soojin was fully asleep and she already knew that being sandwiched in bed between her parents for tonight would definitely be one of her favorites.

 

 

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Author's note: If you think that my update is only here, you are definitely wrong. Everyone's in for a treat 😊