Chap Thirteen

The next afternoon, Thursday.

Luhan hummed happily as he put up the last of the colourful decorations onto the living room walls, nodding satisfyingly that he had managed to finish before the guests had arrived. It was his baby girl’s special day and the young parent’s mood was much better than the past few days; Luhan couldn’t really put on a dark face on Hyeri’s birthday right? And speaking of his daughter, a high-pitched and excited giggle filled the room as the twenty two year turned around to find Hyeri with a huge grin on her.

“Daddy, it’s so pretty!” She exclaimed cheerily, running up to Luhan.

“And it’s all for you, Riri.” He smiled, carrying little Hyeri up into his arms.

Curiously, she began looking around the streamer and balloon decorated room.

“Daddy… where are my presents?” Hyeri asked, wiggling her nose cutely. “I can’t find them.”

Silly one, of course you can’t find them, nobody is here yet! Chuckling amusedly, Luhan placed the little girl onto the floor. “You have to be a good girl and wait until the end of the day to get your presents.” The young parent chided kindly, playfully pinching his daughter’s nose. “Why don’t you go find Mommy for a while? She might need some help in the kitchen.”

“Okay!” The little girl nodded, running off to find Taeyeon.

With that, Luhan sneaked into her room stealthily, placing a wrapped box in a noticeable place.  

It was a present he picked out with Taeyeon; a beautiful dress that Hyeri was sure to love.

About fifteen minutes later.

Taeyeon walked steadily into the living room, carrying a tray of freshly baked almond cookies that smelt like a fragrant piece of heaven. Creeping up slowly behind her, Luhan stole a warm and just hot enough cookie from the metal tray that was supposed to be for the guests – which in turn earned him a lop sided frown from his wife, as she mentioned something about banning him from eating the birthday snacks. Luhan could only pout slightly, finding it silly for Taeyeon to ban him from eating a tiny bite of the almost overflowing number of snacks displayed on the coffee table, it wasn’t his fault that her cooking was fantastic.   

And Hyeri stood at a corner, laughing at how silly at how her Daddy was.

Soon the guests began arriving, a small group of close knit friends and family – Sooyoung and her son Myunghyun, two of Taeyeon’s colleagues; Jessica and Tiffany who were both newly introduced to Luhan as he greeted them with his natural awkwardness. Hyeri’s little friends from school also came, bouts of cute and adorable laughter filling up the place with their innocent bubbliness.

“Daddy! Somebody is here!” Screamed Hyeri over the game she was playing with the other kids.

“I know Riri, I heard the doorbell too!” Luhan replied back, making his way to the front door.

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Opening the front door, three friendly smiles appeared at the entrance. Greeting cheerily and waving to them, Luhan smiled at the pair of brothers, Kai and Sehun; ushering them inside before moving to hug his colleague. “Glad you could come, Tao.” He said, receiving an appreciative grin from the younger male. While Tao may look intimidating at first with his tall height and fierce charismatic eyes despite his young age of nineteen, the student trainee teacher was actually a really approachable and nice person, he was also Luhan’s neighbour in the staff room at school.  

“I can’t wait to see your daughter, she must be as cute as you.”

“… Just come and see for yourself, Tao.” The elder rolled his eyes, puling Tao inside.

Luhan led Tao towards the living room where the happy kids were all munching on the birthday snacks provided, playing games like twister and charades or entertaining themselves with a cartoon on the television. However, little Hyeri couldn’t be found among them, making Luhan scan around the room in search of her. “Ah, there she is!” He pointed towards the dining area where all the young adults were gathered and talking; along with the birthday girl who was proudly showing off the pretty pictures she had drawn to them.

Luhan smiled delightfully at the warm sight of Hyeri being so close to Sehun and Kai. Currently, she was getting two small praising kisses on both cheeks from the pair of brothers as a reward for being able to draw such lovely pictures. Moving closer with Tao, Luhan introduced the fellow teacher to his baby girl. “Hyeri ah, I want you to meet Tao oppa.”

“Tao… oppa?” She looked up at the tall male curiously.

“Yes, my name is Tao. Nice to meet you!” He bent down to her eye level, extending out a hand to shake.

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