“Someone needs to give Wheein the talk.” The Dragon stated as she immediately entered their condo.  

Moonbyul was hunched over on the couch reading over some reports before Yong calmly entered. She may have entered calmly but it was eerie. As if at any moment she could teater over the edge. It was only slightly alarming.

“The talk?” Moonbyul raised an eyebrow and put down her tablet to finally look at Yong. 

Like her voice, Yong's demeanor was eerily calm. Only barely giving a hint at the storm that's raging underneath. The only choice now was if Byul wanted to know what the storm was. But Yong wasn’t giving her a choice. 

“Yes, the talk. I saw something,” Yong calmly sat down by Byul, “disturbing just a little while ago.”

Yong continued to stare ahead. As if she was still trying to comprehend what she just saw. But no one could blame her. She just saw her daughter shirtless with a significant other. What other conclusion could there be?

“Yong, what are you talking about? What talk?” Moonbyul asked with confusion written all over her face. There are a million things they could talk to Wheein about, but what could they talk about that would cause Yong to have this sort of reaction?

“The birds and the bees.” Came the deadpan reply with an equally as dead stare as Yong finally looked at Moonbyul.

“Wha--” Moonbyul couldn’t even comprehend what Yong just said.

“The talk, Byul. Someone needs to have the talk with Wheein.” Yong’s expression and tone never changed. It was as if she was just a talking statue at this point. 

Moonbyul could only squeak and sputter as Yong’s words finally made sense. But there was just one problem. Something that would complicate matters. Well, there were actually a million problems but it was best to face them one at a time. 

“Wait! Everytime you say ‘somebody’ you mean me. Why do I have to give that,” Byul couldn’t even say the word so instead she gestured at nothing, “talk to her?”

“I saw her shirtless.” Yong wasn’t expressionless. She was just dead inside.

“whAT?!” Moonbyul looked horrified as she finally understood why Yong looked as she did.

“They were just standing there. Hyejin was in the kitchen while Wheein was just…..there….. Shirtless…..” Yong’s expression changed to a more pained expression. Out of all the things she thought she would see in her lifetime, she never thought she would see her own daughter shirtless.

Moonbyul had open but no sound came out. She just looked at Yong with a horrified expression. She easily reached the conclusion that Yong made. 

“I…...I…..” Moonbyul tried to utter a single word but couldn’t. She knew Wheein was at that age where certain desires will run rampant. But, she never thought she had to confront that nightmare. She knew Wheein was a good kid, and scarily advanced for her age when it comes to maturity, so it shouldn’t’ve been a problem. But here they are.

“She’s coming in ten minutes, by the way.” Yong’s voice sounded far away.

“YONGSUN.” Moonbyul could only look at her wife in a panic. Ten minutes wasn’t enough time to prepare.

“I already talked to Hyejin, so I already fulfilled my parental expectations for today.”

“Yong, that isn’t--”

“But I’ll be here for moral support.” 

“Can you--”

“I know you will give our beloved daughter the best advice there is.” Yong slapped a supportive hand on Moonbyul’s shoulder. 

“Ow. Yong, I--”

“And you better give her the best damn advice there is. Can’t have Wheein be mortified at giving a poor performance.” Yong nodded sagely while her hand gently rubbed Moonbyul’s shoulder.

“Yong!!” Moonbyul could only whine with an even more horrified expression at her wife’s implication.

“Don’t worry, Byul,” Yong gave her a thumbs up with her other hand and had a big smile on her face, “I’ll know you’ll do fine.”

Moonbyul just stared at her wife before finally grabbing her by the shoulders to face her.

“Why are you pinning this on me!? You’re the one who saw them, shouldn’t you be doing this? Better yet, shouldn’t this be a team effort?” 

Yong let Moonbyul ride this wave of panic before responding. 

“Ah,” She raised her hands to Moonbyul’s face and gently patted the delicate cheeks, “Reflect upon what advice you wished you would’ve gotten when you were young and give that advice to her. I believe in you, my darling moon.”

Moonbyul just stared, “You’re mentally checked out, aren't’ you?”

“I’ve been for the past five minutes. Thanks for noticing.”

A delicate knock on the door reached their ears. Moonbyul felt the panic rise again. Her grip on Yong’s shoulder’s tightened but Yong easily shrugged them off as she went to go get the door. Each step she took towards the door, each echo, Moonbyul could feel time slow and speed up at the same time. It was a weird stage of limbo. So, she mentally tried to prepare herself. 

What could she even say to Wheein that she doesn’t already know? It’s not like she’s going to be at risk for pregnancy any time soon. What about protection? But that means having to get protection and explaining how to use them. What about the concept of ity? Does that even pertain to the topic at hand? Or what about what to expect from ? Who is she kidding, Wheein’s a teenager, of course she knows what to expect. But maybe that expectation was set by ography, which isn’t reflective of what it’s actually like. Unless it was a certain type of ography. But, that means Wheein would have to actively look at stuff like that. Oh god, has Wheein been looking at ography?!

And so her mind went down that spiral. A spiral called having to confront things that she never wanted to confront before. Let alone confront her own daughter for. Why can’t they just skip this talk and continue on as normal?

Moonbyul was so focused on what to talk about that she failed to notice that Wheein already entered the room and was sitting across from her. Yong took her place beside Moonbyul and let the latter have a few extra minutes to prepare. From her hunched over position, hand under her chin, and intense stare with just as equally intense expression of horror, Yong could tell Moonbyul needed a minute or two. 

Wheein could only focus on controlling her breathing. When her mom texted her to come down to talk, there was only one feeling in the world. The feeling of immediate dread. When she actually came out, with a shirt on, she found Hyejin face down on the couch. Not even calling out to her and poking her made Hyejin budge. All Hyejin did was make a weird noise, a mix of a yell and a groan and a whine, into the pillow. 

Seeing that Hyejin needed time to recover, it was probably best to confront her parents and get it over with. The sooner she’s out of this talk then the sooner she can be back in Hyejin’s arms. If Hyejin’s soul returns from wherever it went. 

After a few more moments of awkward squirming, Wheein finally cleared . Desperate to get this over with but also not wanting this to happen at all. But what other choice does she have? Completely ignore that her own mom saw her shirtless and continue to act like everything is normal? If they were to do that then there is always going to be that underlying unresolved conflict. That would be more painful in the end. That unresolved conflict would only build to an even more awkward confrontation. So, like a mature young woman, Wheein elected to confront her parents now. Even if it was her mom that said to come down, but she feels better if it seems like she had a choice in the matter.

Wheein’s throat clearing brought Moonbyul out of her stupor. She took one glance at Yong. The dragon only stared back with expectation. So, with a huff, Moonbyul slapped her knees as she got up and went towards Wheein. Not once did she make eye contact with her daughter. 

Wheein made herself as small as possible as her mother sat right next to her. When her mother didn’t say or do anything immediately, she looked at her mom. Her mom was just pinching the bridge of her nose while taking calming breaths. She wanted nothing more than to be in Hyejin’s protective embrace. But, no.

“Wheein-ah,” Her mother finally spoke in a strained tone. As if she was struggling to even talk right now.

“Y-yes?” Even Wheein’s voice was small. 

Her mother took a deep breath before she finally made her move. She pulled Wheein into a tight hug and immediately began to coddle her. 

“I don’t want you to grow up! You’ll always be my baby!!” Moonbyul whined in defeat. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t bring herself to even bring up the topic.

Wheein only squeaked in surprise. What could she do? She doesn’t want to talk about the elephant in the room either. Her mother’s defeat was her victory. Or, it would have been if a certain dragon wasn’t there.

“Moonbyul.” Yong scolded.

“What did you expect? We can talk about it after the trip, ok? We have a week left anyway. And it would be better to talk about it in a more familiar setting and not taint the rest of the trip with awkwardness.” Moonbyul tucked Wheein’s head under her chin and her hair while looking at Yong with a pout. 

“Fine,” Yong sighed, “But, there is just one thing we do need to talk about.”

Wheein looked at her mom with confusion and horror. She thought they were going to talk to her about being shirtless.From what she heard so far it seems like they were going to talk to her about something completely different. What did they have planned? Did they come to a weird conclusion just because she was shirtless?

Moonbyul only grumbled but she knew Yong had a point. The dragon needed answers from her own daughter’s mouth. She held Wheein at arms length and looked her in the eye.

“Wheein-ah, why were you shirtless?” 

She was prepared for this question. She had an answer ready and everything. She just wasn’t ready for how direct it would be. She could only sputter.

“I, uh, well you see…...uh, it was hot??” Wheein’s once confident answer dwindled under the dragon’s gaze and the hamster’s stare. 

They just stared at her. She was their daughter but how did she come up with such a lame excuse? They didn’t raise her like that.

“That was the worst lie I have ever heard in my life.” Moonbyul could only shake her head at her daughter’s terrible excuse.

“It's true!” Wheein could only whine as she tried to defend herself. But her cover up was full of holes.

“Uh-huh. So, why was Hyejin still fully clothed then? If it was that hot.” Yong said as she easily obliterated the rest of Wheein’s cover story.

“Uhm….because she wasn’t as hot???” Even Wheein knew that her answer wasn’t sufficient. But she was desperate to try. 

“You know, let’s just have the talk. So we don’t have to hear your terrible lies anymore.” Moonbyul looked at Wheein with pity while giving her a sad pat on the shoulder. Her lie was atrocious. A five year old could tell a better lie.

“The what now?!” Wheein’s voice turned shrill. Surprised that her parents even reached that sort of conclusion.

Seeing Wheein’s horrified look of confusion, Yong spoke up.

“We never gave you the birds and the bees talk, and I think it’s high time we did. Especially after what I saw today.” Yong said with as much authority as she could muster. She was still suffering from the side effects of seeing her daughter shirtless, her assumption as to why Wheein was shirtless, and now suffering from having to hear such a terrible lie.

“But-but we didn’t even do anything! So, we don’t need to have the birds and the bees talk!” Wheein admitted in a rush.

Yong was still somewhat mentally checked out so Moonbyul was the only one that caught what Wheein said. Despite it being said in one long string of consciousness.

“Huh? You were shirtless and you two didn’t do anything? Then why were you shirtless?” Moonbyul was even more confused.

“I….uh….well…” Wheein squirmed. There could be many possibilities to how her parents would respond to the truth. But, how could she tell them? How could she admit that she wanted to give everything to Hyejin, but got scared? How can she even explain the reasoning as to why she was scared? Hell, how could she even admit that she wanted to begin with? Wanted but got scared at the possible aftermath? How can she put that into coherent thought when, to her, they were just rampant feelings. Feelings with a million words yet none of the words could be stringed together to form something understandable.

As these thoughts raced through her head, her facial expression unknowingly changed. Her frightened and confused face of a caught puppy shifted to a dejected puppy. A puppy that was abandoned by those it loved most in the world.  

Seeing Wheein’s facial expression change, Moonbyul and Yong looked at each other. They didn’t like the face that their daughter was making, so it was time to find the cause of it and see if it could be resolved. 

Yong quickly got up to sit down next to an ever retreating Wheein. She gently wrapped an arm around Wheein’s small form and Moonbyul did the same. Even if Wheein was curling in on herself, they did their best to let Wheein know that they were here for her without being too pushy.

But, there was only so much silence they could take. They couldn’t watch their daughter being curled up in a ball forever.

“Wheein-ah,” Yong softly rubbed Wheein’s shoulder to try to gain her daughter’s attention, “What’s wrong?”

No response.

“Wheeinie, did something happen? Did Hyejin do something to you?” Moonbyul asked as she gently rubbed Wheein’s knees.

That garnered a response almost immediately.

“No! Hyejin didn’t do anything.” Came Wheein’s muffled reply.

“Then what’s wrong?” Yong asked in a soft tone.

It was time. No, it wasn’t time. It was just now she didn't have a choice. She unconsciously gave her worries away. It was time to come clean even if she doesn’t want to. But, there was just one problem. Even if she wanted to tell her parents everything that was racing through her mind, she couldn’t. She would try, but nothing would come out. 

They painfully watched as Wheein struggled to even utter out a single syllable. They wanted to help but what could they do? Play a guessing game? No, Wheein needed to tell them herself. Even if it took a while.

Taking a couple of shaky breathes, she finally spoke. Spoke behind a curtain of hair and limbs. 

“I’m scared.” 

Her voice was so soft, so weak, that it took a moment for Yong and Byul to even register what Wheein said. Once they understood what Wheein said, they both gave her a hug. A supportive hug. A hug that held no judgements. 

But they just identified the problem. To truly solve it they would need to get to the root of it. Why exactly was Wheein scared? They know that Wheein would have to solve it herself, but they could point her in the right direction. Point her in the right direction and give her the best advice they could. 

“Scared of actually doing it?” Moonbyul gently asked. Even if she was internally dying at the potential of giving the talk to Wheein just moments ago, now was different. She will do anything to help her daughter even if it is painful and awkward. 

Wheein just shook her head. 

“Scared of the aftermath?” Despite the many times she couldn’t figure out her daughter, there are times where Yong had Wheein pegged. This was one of those times.

Wheein made a noise that confirmed Yong’s question.

“What about the aftermath that scares you?” Yong asked while Moonbyul gave Wheein a full hug.

Wheein finally raised her head enough to peer just above her knees before responding.

“It’s the end.” Wheein said before retreating back into her shell.

Moonbyul glanced at Yong and they made eye contact. Looks like they are going to give Wheein a talk. Just a talk they never considered they would need to give.