With a forced smile on her face, Emma pushed a double seated stroller through the streets and to the designated building. I can’t BELIEVE he convinced me to do this… she fumed.

Earlier in the week, her best friend and live-in roommate, Song Youngwoo, had gotten injured in a car crash. He had several fractures in the right side of his body, and had surgery to set the bones in place again for healing. Because of this, he had to take indefinite leave from his part time job at the nearby coffee shop. AND he missed two photoshoots.

It must be tough to be a model and miss your shoot… Emma reasoned, feeling guilty for being angry with an injured person. It was why she had agreed to do what she was doing now.

Youngwoo had arranged for an audition about two months back, and it was very successful. The audition was for the next season of Hello Baby, and Youngwoo’s two beautiful children were accepted to partake in the show. However, because of the accident and recent surgery, Youngwoo wasn’t fit and able to take them in for the show.

And of course I have to be the er to do it… Emma finished. She spotted the building she needed, and realized it was an apartment complex.

The still forced smile on her face tightened when she ran into other people in the apartment’s entrance lobby. They glanced her way with a mix of bliss at the sight of children...and disdain when they realized who the adorable babies were with. I knew they would judge me, Emma thought, biting her lip.

She was a young foreign woman from Canada, just barely turning 20 in Korean age*. She was tall, with natural brown hair and blue eyes. But that alone wasn’t the problem: what WAS the matter was the fact that there were two cute toddlers sitting in the stroller she pushed. She didn’t even wear a wedding band, either.

Song Suji and Song Jihoo, the cutest little babies ever, in Emma’s opinion. They were a precious but somewhat fatal mistake Youngwoo had made back in his and Emma’s high school days. He had been dating an older girl, who dumped the twin babies on him and ran off. Because of them, Youngwoo’s parents disowned him and threw him out of their house.

Youngwoo didn’t have it bad for long, though. As soon as Emma found out what happened to her friend, she convinced her parents to let him and the twins move into their home. Emma’s father was constantly out of the house for business trips, and Emma’s mother ran a well-off restaurant in the richer side of town, so the company was nice for Emma, who was an only child.

But other people didn’t see it that way. All people could see was the surface of the situation: a foreign girl and a teenage boy, unrelated by blood, living together, unmarried, and with children. Emma and Youngwoo constantly got dirty, disapproving looks. Which was exactly what was happening now.

Emma grinned and bared it when a young production assistant walked up to her holding a clipboard with a similar look on her face. She fumbled in English for a moment, but Emma cut her off, saying through gritted teeth and a fake smile, “I’m the...MOTHER of Song Suji and Jihoo. They’re here for the filming for Hello Baby.”

The PA* stepped back, startled at Emma’s fluent Korean, before nodding and showing her the way. If the PA was worried about something, she didn’t say anything as she led Emma to push the twins’ stroller into the room they needed to be.

“Umma, can we have ice cream?” Suji asked excitedly as she turned her head to look at Emma.

Emma laughed, partially in amusement at the PA’s face. She focused on the kids instead, saying, “If you behave today.”

“We’ll be good!” Suji exclaimed.

“Promise?” Emma teased.

“Yes! I want ice cream!” Suji squealed.

“Noona you’re loud,” Jihoo whined softly. Emma laughed again as the twins started arguing, but shushed them when she spotted another woman with a child. The woman and child pair were waiting patiently in the hallway of the building. They stood by the door of one of the apartments.

She walked up to the other woman and smiled. The woman smiled back, asking, “Are these the other little ones that will be on the show with my Kangin?”

Emma nodded and looked at the little boy, Kangin. How cute! Emma thought with a tender smile. She knelt down so that she and the child were eye level with each other. “You’re a VERY handsome young man,” Emma complimented the little boy.

He beamed proudly and the woman, his mother, laughed softly. “Your babies are very cute too,” she said.

“Oh, um...thanks,” Emma said awkwardly. She stood again and bit her lip shyly.

“Umma tells us that everyday!” Suji said loudly with a grin. “Kangin umma, you’re nice! I like you!”

The woman laughed and said, “I like you too,” as Suji waved a toy around with enthusiasm. Jihoo tried to grab it from her, which resulted in a tug of war game between the two. Kangin stood beside his mother, rambling away about everything and anything to the twins as they fought over the toy.

“They seem like quite a handful,” Kangin’s mother commented with a smile.

“Yes, but they usually behave when their APPA is around,” Emma said, putting emphasis on the word ‘dad’. Immediately, the two froze and looked to Emma with big eyes. “They both adore their appa,” Emma explained. “I wish they loved me that much.”

“We love you umma!” Suji cried, reaching out her arms for Emma. Emma smirked, but unbuckled the little girl before picking her up and hugging her.

“We love you!” Jihoo agreed quickly. “...We just love appa more…”

Emma and Kangin’s mother laughed then at the little boy’s comment. Emma set Suji on the ground with a firm, “Don’t wander off.” before taking Jihoo out of the stroller as well.

The PA from earlier approached Kangin’s mother and Emma then, saying, “I’d like for you two to be nearby when we do the first shooting. Since today will be our first taping, it’ll help the kids be less nervous if they can see you.”

“Of course,” Kangin’s mother agreed. Emma nodded, and the PA continued.

“Alright, so the first scene we’ll be shooting is the meeting of the appas and babies,” the PA explained. She led the two “mothers” into the apartment and showed them around. Several camera and lighting crew were already inside, setting up and preparing for filming. “This apartment will be the main place we shoot some of the more calmer interactions. It will be where the appas and babies will spend quality time, and learning about their various missions. This is the living room, and will be the main area VIXX and the babies will interact in while in the apartment. Down this hallway is the two bedrooms, a large bathroom, and a suite with a bathroom attached. And over to our side is the kitchen.”

The PA turned to the children then, smiling kindly. “Remember babies, when the camera is rolling, you have to call the boys ‘appas’. Okay?”

Suji and Kangin nodded fiercely, while Jihoo bobbed his head slowly.

After going over the general rules about being on the set, the PA asked for the cameras to start filming. Kangin’s mother hooked her arm with Emma’s as the two women made their way to the couches to sit. The kids knowingly gathered onto the living room carpet and sat down to play with the toys their mothers brought with them. It was precious. Emma watched with a swelling heart as Suji and Jihoo drove toy cars into the air, cheerfully cooing at each other in toddler babble.

Emma and Kangin’s mother started suddenly at the sound of the apartment doorbell. Immediately, the children perked up at the chiming. The PA nodded to the children, and Suji and Kangin squealed in rehearsed, but completely believable, excitement. Emma and Kangin’s mother stared at the three toddlers in slight surprise. Suji and Kangin screamed, “Appas! Appas!” as they suddenly ran to the front door. Jihoo stayed in his spot in the living room area, cautiously watching his sister and the other child.

A cameraman followed the two kids to the apartment’s front door. Emma tensed in apprehension, but Kangin’s mother touched her shoulder and smiled gently, whispering, “Our babies know what to do. They’re smart.”

Emma nodded slowly. Her eyes trained on Suji like a hawk as the little girl fumbled with the front door’s handle. In a triumphant cry, Suji and Kangin opened the door before cheering loudly, “Appas are here!”

Behind the doorway stood six very handsome young men. Emma held her breath in shock. This is it. This is VIXX! she thought in excitement.

*Korean age is slightly different. It's technically counted as a year older

than what someone's actual age is. They count the day you are

born as your first year. So technically speaking, Emma isn't really

really turning 20 yet. (she's turning 19 by most

other countries' standards)

*PA: short for Production Assistant. They're a member of the film crew,

but sometimes their positions vary. I just wanted to shorten the name, 

since Production Assistant can get tiring to always have to type out...