Beautiful figures… swirling colorful lines moving up and down… A joyful melody making its way through your mind. Inside your head even the smallest of things could come alive during the night. They could make a warm hue spread all over your body, making you wake up with a smile on your face. Yes, you were having a peaceful, deep sleep. But in between the wondrous fantasies there was something that didn’t belong there. It was a wailing, high pitched sound that made certain emotions stir inside of you… waking you up and awakening those exact feelings you had ever since the creator of the sound had been born…Mae Ri.

It took you exact two seconds after realizing your baby girl was crying, to jump out of bed and rush to her little crib in the room next to yours. She was crying loudly, but the moment she was captured by your warm, loving arms and you cradled her against your chest, all of that disappeared. “Let’s go warm up your milk, sweetie.” You mumbled, walking to the kitchen in silence. About 20 minutes later you crawled back under the covers with a sigh. Your eyes fell onto the covered figure that was your husband:  Jung DaeHyun. Of course he was still vast asleep; he slept rather deeply and never heard anything. Naturally, you were also back asleep in no time.

It was there again: the distinct sound that made your eyelids flutter open and closed again in the middle of the night. You vaguely read the numbers on your alarm clock; 04.00. It had been only two hours, but apparently the 10 month old girl was more than hungry again. “Ugh, why is she so much like her dad?” You groaned, feeling how your eyelids were too heavy to open this time and your body didn’t seem to agree with the plan of getting up. So instead, you turned to your side and poked your fingers in DaeHyun’s side. “Grmmblnngg.” The sound that came out of his mouth was groggy and disapproving. But you did it again. “Hhnng, what?” he muttered, his face turning to look at you. The thin lines of his eyes were half-lidded, but you knew he was staring at you in confusion. “Your daughter is crying.” You informed him. “And?” he asked hoarsely. He wasn’t used with dealing with this, since you usually went out to get her and let him sleep. You mostly did it because of his busy schedule; figuring that with the practices, concerts and promoting, he definitely needed his sleep. But not this week. Not now that he had an entire week off. This night he would suffer too. “Your daughter is hungry. Go get her.” You replied, staring at him intensely.

He groaned, turning around to make his back face you. “Before sunrise she’s your daughter.” He mumbled. Oh no he did not. Like hell he was going to get away with it this time. You were tired too and it was about time he got a taste of how it was like to get up every three hours again and again and again. “Yeobo…” you said in a mildly threatening tone. He ignored it, covering his head with the blankets like a child. Good, if he didn’t want to communicate with words, you would do it with actions. If he wanted to play it like that, so would you. You moved to your side, positioning your feet so that they could push against his back. With a harsh attack, you shoved him closer to the side of the bed.

“Ya!” he reacted, yet he hardly moved and stayed in the same position. It seemed like he wasn’t grasping the content of your plans just yet. Going for another attack, you put in extra effort to make sure you would succeed now. With a loud thud he ended up on the floor next to the double bed. “Yaaaaaah!” he brought out again in both surprise and annoyance. With a wide smirk on your face you moved to the edge of the bed, staring at how he was sitting there with a disgruntled face and rubbing his head. “That hurt, you know.” He complained while glaring at you. Once he was on his feet, you continued your plan by staying on his spot and pulling all the covers around you to keep him from getting under them. “Now that you’re up anyway, why don’t you go check on our daughter.” You said; emphasizing the last two words to let him know that this was pay back for his words earlier. He sighed loudly and looked down at your face with the big smile and amused twinkles in your eyes. “You are unbelievable.” He mumbled as he rolled his eyes. “That’s why you loved me, don’t you?” you grinned, watching him walk off towards the door after another groan. “Oh by the way, after you put her back in. Can you make sure you’ve put out the garbage too? You’re up now anyway.” You added with a smug smile before turning over in bed again and covering yourself with the blankets right away. Finally sleep!

But as you felt your eyes droop, the baby monitor started to beep and buzz the moment DaeHyun walked into Mae Ri’s room. Groaning loudly, you moved up again, ready to walk to the cabinet where it was and put it off for a while. But then you heard DaeHyun’s voice. It was sweet, soft and still slightly hoarse due to the lack of sleep. But the tone of sweetness, the deep warm feeling of love that seeped through his voice as he talked to her made you pause. It was something that always got straight to your heart and made warm tingly feelings spread all over your body. “Hi there, princess. Why are you crying? Come with daddy my sweetheart. No more crying okay, you’re far too pretty to cry.” He said to your little girl. You could easily picture the way he was now holding her close to his body. You could imagine how she would now press her rosy cheeks to his bare chest and feel the warmth of her daddy; it would instantly calm her down. And indeed, it was silent in no time. “That’s more like it.” his voice sounded. “You know, when you nuzzled against me like this, with such a pleased look on your face; you remind me a lot of your mommy.” DaeHyun spoke, making a smile spread on your lips as your paid extra attention to everything he said. Suddenly, sleeping wasn’t so interesting any more.

‘Aish, when you smile at me like that even more!” he complained. You imagined him shaking his head with a smile on his face. “In fact, mommy also has those sparkles in her eyes when she laughs, or when she’s up to something. Just like the ones she had after she shoved me out of the bed. Can you believe her? Sometimes I … --- BZZ.” The sound stopped and you realized he had walked out of the bedroom and off to the kitchen. Ah damn.

Your curiosity was killing you and made you quickly jump off the bed. In no time you had followed behind him, making sure you wouldn’t be noticed. He didn’t need to know you were hearing everything he was saying. You knew he probably forgot about the baby monitor and didn’t realize he was actually also talking to you. And you wanted to hear this so badly. Now, it wasn’t like he never said anything sweet to you, but you still wanted to know what else he had to say about it. Especially now; when his last sentence had been cut off so abruptly. Hiding behind the corner, you could hear him fidget with Mae Ri’s seat as he tried to put her in. “Don’t look at me like that.” He mumbled to her, and you almost laughed at the tone of it. “Your mommy also has a judgmental look like that. Your appetite might be exactly like mine, but you surely got a lot from her too.” He added as he opened the microwave to put in her milk. “I’m serious, don’t look at me as if your mad, princess. I don’t like it.” he repeated. You figured Mae Ri wasn’t even completely aware of the look she was giving him and probably just eager to get her food. Still, you wondered what kind of look he was talking about.

“She looked at me like that last week, when I said I only had a week free instead of two weeks. It scared me. ” He then sighed. Your eyes flew open; thoughts flying back to the moment he had told you. Yeah, you had been slightly pissed and bothered by it. After all, he had promised to go on a holiday to Jeju island in his second week. And now those plans had been ruined. Logically, you hadn’t been pleased. But why had it scared him? Fortunately, the look in Mae Ri’s eyes was enough to have him continue. Thank god for the look on your daughter’s face. “You probably wonder why, right? Well it’s just that I hate to disappoint her. I know it bothered her that we couldn’t go and damn, how badly I wanted to go! But I had no say in it. And when she looks at me like that I just get so afraid that it’ll be the last drop, you know? Oh goodness, of course you don’t know you’re a baby!” he explained to her. You almost laughed at the last words, but you were too shocked by his words to actually let that come out. ‘The last drop’ for what?

During the time you heard him take back the milk and take Mae Ri back into his arms to let her drink, your mind was preoccupied with trying to find explanations for his words, but you couldn’t quite grasp it. If only he explained more! Suddenly, his voice pulled you back out of your thoughts. “You’re so beautiful my little MaeRi. So beautiful and radiant and completely drop-dead gorgeous. Just like your mother.” He started. “I love her so much. You have no idea. I’m truly blessed to be with her and I’ll be forever grateful for how she puts up with my busy schedule. After two hours it seemed like she completely forgot about the bad news about the holiday! Can you imagine? I really expected her to say it was too much. How she was sick of my idol life and the busy life I have. But nothing! She’s so amazing. I can’t believe it.” He told her, making your mouth fall open. So that was it. He expected you to get sick of the life he was leading and the lack of time you could spend with him? Granted, it did annoy you at times. But you loved him too much to leave him over something like that. Every minute you did have with him, was always worth the wait. He was always worth the wait. And you planned on showing him that more often from now on, not wanting him to fear anything anymore.

The little hiccups of Mae Ri announced to you that it was time for you to go back to bed. Quickly rushing to the bedroom, you hid under the covers. Soon, he was back by your side and covered himself with the blankets while letting out a soft sigh. That was your cue. You quickly turned around, snuggled closer to him and kissed his cheek. “You’re the best daddy and husband in the world.” You whispered to him. Through the darkness, you could still see a smile spread across his lips. “Really?” he asked hesitantly. “Yup, I wouldn’t trade you for anything in the world. “ you replied in all honesty,  feeling how his arms pulled you closer against him. “Me neither, baby. Because, nothing in the world could be as amazing as you.” DaeHyun said, before kissing you back.