“Uncle Jaaaaay, Uncle Jaaaay!” Two children: one eight-year-old girl and one five-year-old boy jumped from their seats on the porch and raced enthusiastically down the road to fling their arms around their Uncle who’d just arrived, Jaebum Park.

            “Yo, what’s up?”, Jay said, grinning as he gently gave each of them a hug and patted their heads.

            “Uncle Jay, how are babies made? Mommy keeps saying a stork drops babies on people’s doorsteps, but Daddy says we’re children from heaven, brought by angels…”

            “Well”, Uncle Jay started to say matter-of-factly, “when a man and a woman go inside a room and-“

            “JAY!”, Hanul yelled from the porch, “DON’T YOU DARE-“

            “So, um, er-they pray for a baby… and uh…. A stork comes and um, drops the baby on the front steps of their house…”, Jay said, quickly changing his story.  

            “Ohhhh, so Mommy’s right”, the little girl, Soo Min, said. She raced up to Hanul, saying over and over again, “Mommy, you were right!”

            “I usually am, right, Jay?”, Hanul said, glaring at her older brother.

            Jay smiled sheepishly. “Yeah.”

            But Jae Woo, the little boy, crossed his arms and glared up at his uncle, “Liar.”

            Jay put a finger to his lips and whispered, “Sh… I’ll tell you when you’re older, little Jae.”

            “It’s Jae Woo, not Jay.”, the little boy said, and stomped off to go find his father.

            “Sheesh, Hanul, your son is a punk”, Jay told Hanul as he entered the house.

            “I know. I think Khun and I made a mistake in naming him after you and Wooyoung. He seems to take his name way too seriously. See, he’s even sporting that stupid spike-up hairstyle you two always wear.” It was true. Jae Woo was a five-year-old baby with spiked hair…  

            Jay grinned. “Speaking of, where’s Khun?”

            “At my parents house. Playing Go-Stop. I swear Khun’s their new child, Mom and Dad can’t seem to get enough of him.”

            “Everyone loves Thai Prince”, Jay replied, agreeing. He joined Hanul at the backyard door.

            For a moment, Hanul and Jay just stood and watched Soo Min and Jae Woo playing outside. The sky was a gorgeous blue today. Soo Min was on the little makeshift swing and Jae Woo was pushing her. He was pushing her cautiously, like he didn’t want her to fall, even though she was kicking her feet at him to make the swing go higher. Then, Soo Min, impatient, jumped off the swing and promptly tackled Jae Woo to the ground in one go.

            Both Hanul and Jay laughed.

            “You know,  Hanul, in some ways… I feel like we’ve moved backwards rather than forwards”, Jay said.

            And Hanul, who was watching her children, had to agree. Her son and daughter were splitting images of her and Jay when they had been younger, except Nichkhun was also clearly in the picture, in Soo Min’s caramel-colored hair and Jae Woo’s adorable eye smile….

            The very thought of her children and of her, Jay, Nichkhun, and Wooyoung, and her parents and friends with her... A warmth blossomed inside Hanul; it started somewhere deep inside her, and then spread through to her very fingertips… Like starlight and sunfire coursing through her…

            And then she felt arms around her waist, and Nichkhun was whispering quietly that he was home.

            And Hanul warmly replied, “Me too.”