Tiny Dancers

CL woke up to the sound of the triplets running around the house. She could hear their little feet pattering up and down the wood-floored hallway, their high-pitched voices cycling between giggling, squealing, and crying.

“Ai, Seungri-yah, get up,” she said, her eyes still closed as she reached over to Seungri’s side to push him out of bed.

Seungri moaned and turned over, burying his face in the pillow.

CL could feel the sleepiness taking hold of her again and wished that she could give in to that feeling and stay in bed for another hour or two. She and Seungri had traded idol life for married life, with her surprise pregnancy that first year even more of a surprise when they found out that she would be having triplets. She felt like she hadn’t had a day off in all that time. Tired and groggy, she had a fleeting wish for just one day of peace and quiet.

“Seungri-yah!” she yelled, as she flung her right arm over at him, limply hitting his back. “If I have to get up, so do you.”

Seungri whined, his voice muffled by the pillow. “Why?”

“Why? Because you got me pregnant with not one, not two, but three babies!”

Seungri slowly his side to face CL, his eyes barely open but his smile wide. “What are you saying, Chaerinni? That I have super seed?”

CL let out a hoarse laugh and shook her head.

Seungri smiled even wider now and shimmied over to her on the bed, draping his right leg over her body and snuggling up close. He could see that her eyes were heavy and her face puffy, but she was still the same beautiful woman that he had married years earlier. “You want to experience more of my superpowers?” he teasingly asked while kissing her shoulder.

“Aish, what superpowers?” CL teased back.

“Oh?” Seungri stopped kissing her shoulder and stared at her. “Are you saying you’d like a demonstration of my amazing panda-like technique?” He rolled on top of her and began kissing her neck.

CL hysterically laughed while trying to push him off her. “Yah! Panda-like? What?”

“You’re my bamboo, and all I want to do is nibble on you…” He began gnawing at her collarbone and tickling her ribs mercilessly while she threw her head back in laughter and continued to fight him off.

“Stop! Ai, I can’t take any more,” she said.

Just then, the three-year-olds came running in. “Omma! Appa!” they yelled.

Seungri immediately rolled back onto his side of the bed. “Looks like you’ll have to wait until tonight for Super Panda’s return,” he quickly whispered to CL before turning his attention to the kids, all of whom were trying to climb up on the bed.

CL opened her arms to embrace their daughter, Eun Ni.

“You wakey, omma?” Eun Ni asked, her dimply smile stretched across her face.

“Yes, darling. I’m awake.” She instinctively picked at Eun Ni’s thick bangs, styling them somewhat with a turn of her fingers. “Want me to brush your hair?”

Eun Ni swiftly nodded.

The two boys, identical except for the one dimple each had on the opposite cheek, were struggling to climb up. Seungri crawled to the end of the bed and swung his arms around each boy, lifting them both onto the bed in one swoop. 

“Aaaaappa!” Daniel whined, gripping his teddy bear.

“Whaaaaat?” Seungri whined back.

“Denny ate Mista Teddy,” he said, pouting. “He ate Mista Teddy ear.” Daniel’s cute chubby hand pointed to the teddy bear’s ear.

Seungri shook his head as he reached over to examine the bear’s ear, feeling that it was a bit wet. He looked over at Dennis. “Did the bear taste good?”

Dennis shook his head no.

“Are you going to eat him again?”

Dennis shook his head no again.

Seungri looked back at Daniel and shrugged. “Well, your brother said that he won’t eat him again. And Mister Teddy seems okay. So, you feel better now?”

“No,” Daniel said.

“Why?” Seungri asked.

“Mista Teddy, he no happy. He mad now.”

Seungri grabbed the teddy bear and pretended to make it speak. In the squeakiest voice he could muster, he said, “I’m not mad. I’m the happiest teddy bear in the whole world!”

CL, who had been sitting behind Eun Ni on the bed as she brushed the little girl’s hair, tried not to laugh.

The two boys went from staring in shock at the teddy bear to suddenly crying.

“What?” Seungri asked. “Why are you two crying now?”

“You scared them,” CL said, as she continued to brush Eun Ni’s hair.

“Aish,” he said, staring at his crying boys. “Shh, it’s okay. Mister Teddy can’t talk. That was just me pretending. I was just making a funny voice, okay?” As Dennis and Daniel’s cries faded to a whimper, Seungri looked over at his daughter. “How come you’re not crying?”

Eun Ni smiled and shrugged.

CL reached around her little girl and pulled her back into her lap. “Because we know appa is just being silly, don’t we?” CL asked, kissing Eun Ni’s cheek.

Eun Ni laughed. “Silly appa.”

“That’s right,” CL said. “Appa is very silly.” She flashed Seungri a smile and, after glancing over at the clock, gestured toward the boys. “Can you get them washed and dressed? We have dance soon.”

“Nooo!” Dennis yelled. “No dance today!”

“You don’t want to go to dance class?” Seungri asked.

Nooo!” all three kids yelled.

“Why?” Seungri asked. “Don’t you like Lee Hyori seonsaeng?”

“Nooo!” all three kids yelled.

“What? Are you just saying ‘no’ to everything?”

The kids giggled.

“Well, appa doesn’t want to go to dance either,” Seungri said, looking over at CL. “Appa wants to stay in bed all day with omma.”

As the kids cheered, CL smacked her lips at Seungri. “Yah, you’re not helping!”

Seungri grabbed the teddy bear. “Let’s consult Mister Teddy.” Looking at the bear, he asked, “What do you think, Mr. Teddy? Should we just stay home and play?”

“Am I the only adult in this room?” CL asked, interrupting Seungri’s conversation with the bear.

“Okay, okay,” Seungri said. “Come on, kids, you heard your omma.” He tapped the boys’ butts and resisted their protests as he pushed them off to the bathroom down the hall.

CL picked up Eun Ni and dropped her off at the bathroom door. “I’m going to start breakfast,” she told Seungri. Looking at the children, she said, “I want all of your faces and hands shiny and clean before you come eat, okay?”

“Yes, omma,” they said in unison.

The next hour consisted of a mad dash around the house. While Seungri worked to quickly bathe the kids and get himself washed up, CL made mung bean pancakes for everyone and then traded places with the rest of the family, washing up in the bathroom while everyone else ate in the kitchen. She didn’t have time to eat her own serving.

During the week, CL and Seungri had a nanny that helped with the kids, but on the weekends, the responsibilities were theirs alone. They didn’t go out anymore like they did when they were dating, not even for the occasional meal. Seungri kept telling CL that when their kids start attending kindergarten this upcoming March, they’d have their days free. But CL didn’t think so. With school came more responsibilities: conferences with teachers, after-school activities, tutoring sessions.

By the time she was able to round up Seungri and the children into their van, it was nearly nine o’clock, the time at which the dance class started.

“Why do you always have to drive?” CL asked, as she buckled her seatbelt on the passenger side.

“Because I’m the man,” Seungri said.

“Don’t give me that,” she said.

Seungri adjusted the rearview mirror and glanced at the triplets in the backseat. “Isn’t that right, kiddos? Tell your omma who’s in charge.”

“Appa in charge,” Daniel said.

Dennis, struggling with what Seungri made him memorize, said, “Appa is… is boss…”

“Family boss!” Eun Ni yelled out.

CL’s mouth hung open as she stared at Seungri. “What are you teaching them?”

“What? I didn’t teach them anything.” Smiling, he added, “They’re just smart enough to realize who the boss is.”

“I can’t believe you did that,” she said, shaking her head as she stared out the window and watched the Seoul streets flash by. “Making them memorize that.”

“Wah! I didn’t make them memorize anything!” Seungri laughed, knowing that he was a terrible liar.

“You shouldn’t use the kids like that,” she said.

“Oh, come on. It’s not a big deal. Anyway, what about you teaching them to sing ‘Lollipop’ the other day?”

“What about it?”

Imitating CL’s voice, he said, “You shouldn’t use the kids like that.”

“What’s wrong with them singing ‘Lollipop’?”

Seungri yanked the wheel to turn onto the street where Lee Hyori’s dance studio was located. “That song’s not about lollipops, Chaerinni!”

“They don’t know that. It’s just a cute song for them to sing.”

“Loll-loll-loll!” Daniel and Dennis cried out.

“You loll poppy pop,” Eun Ni sang.

Seungri shook his head and nudged CL. “At least teach them to sing it right,” he joked, as he pulled into the last empty parking spot outside the dance studio and turned off the ignition.

They were twenty minutes late. Seungri and CL walked into the small dance studio with deep bows and then made the triplets quickly take off their shoes before ushering them to join the lesson already in progress. Hyori flashed Seungri and CL an understanding smile as she continued to teach the class of five, now eight with the triplets, how to stand on their toes.

Seungri and CL, meanwhile, walked to the back of the room where the wood floor of the dance space gave way to rough carpeting on which were a row of plastic chairs where the other parents were seated. As they made their way to the last two empty seats at the end of the row, they waved to G-Dragon and Dara, who were there to watch their little girl.

“If we had gotten here earlier, we could be sitting next to our friends,” CL whispered to Seungri as they sat down.

“We shouldn’t be here at all,” Seungri whispered back. “We can save the thousands of dollars this class costs and teach our kids to stand on their toes ourselves.”

“It’s important that they socialize,” she said, but her whisper was drowned out by the music, which Hyori had just turned up as she instructed the students to now tippytoe with a twirl.

CL felt the rumbling in her stomach from not eating and looked around for her bag in the hopes that she had a snack in there, realizing then that she had left her bag back on the kitchen counter. It wasn’t like her to be so forgetful. She rolled her head back now, trying to stretch her neck. Her mind and her body were so tired.

She thought then about how she had felt that morning, about that pressing need for a day off. Glancing down the row at Dara, she tried to judge whether her unni looked as frazzled as she was, thinking that perhaps a spa day might be in order, but Dara’s flawless face sparkled. CL couldn’t help but think that G-Dragon and Dara had it easier with just one child.

Trying to forget all of that, she focused on the children, watching them practice their moves in front of the mirror-lined studio wall. G-Dragon and Dara’s little girl gracefully moved across the floor, not once missing a step. Seungri and CL’s daughter was not quite as graceful, as she was a year younger and somewhat clumsy, but she managed to twirl without falling. The same couldn’t be said of Daniel and Dennis, though. At that moment, while attempting his twirl, Dennis fell and landed on his . Being a good brother, Daniel tried to help him up, but he ended up falling right alongside Dennis.

CL gasped and covered to hide her laughter as Hyori scurried after the boys, trying to help them up, but the boys kept slipping in their socks on the polished wood of the dance floor. Hyori’s face grew red as she alternated between the boys, managing to keep one on his toes while struggling with the other, only to have that process repeated as they continued to slide and fall on the floor. CL smiled widely, realizing that this scene was symbolic of the never-ending struggle she faced each day while running after these kids.   

When both boys were finally on their feet again, they disregarded Hyori’s call to twirl and instead joined hands with their sister and began an impromptu dance circle, just bouncing around the other twirling kids without a care in the world.

Seungri, who had until then managed to control his amusement, now squeezed CL’s hand as he fell into an uncontrollable bout of laughter. CL looked down at their joined hands and then ce more to watch their three tiny dancers with their cute pudgy faces dancing their own unique choreography out there on the floor, her eyes filled with tears of merriment as she watched the craziness and messiness of it all. It was like their life. It was like their love. If nothing else, it kept them on their toes.