55. CUB ARRIVES

Imo had requested the surgery to be scheduled on 25^th December, but Heechul didn’t want to share baby’s birthday with anyone, not even Jesus. It was on Sunday morning that we found ourselves crowding into the room with Heechul and Siwon in the hospital. The room was smaller. Nurse looked at all of us and asked a few to leave, but Doc intervened letting us stay. Imo, uncle, Puppy and I had accompanied the would-be parents.

We kept a steady stream of jokes flowing to keep them from getting nervous about the surgery. We began placing bets on the gender of the baby. The nicknames of Duckie and Kopa were approved by all. Heechul protested still. He wanted the baby girl to be called Kiara, Simba’s daughter in the movie. I shrugged.

“You can call the baby whatever you want. I am going to call him or her Duckie.”

He beckoned me close and whispered, “Remember your Byong will be using the same nickname for my cub. Do you want him to use the word ‘Duckie’? I have no problem if you are ready to book Byong for my baby whether boy or girl, dear relative.”

I looked at him in shock. He nodded his head. I shook my head in no. He nodded again.

“You win. I will call the baby whatever you want.”

“That’s my dear friend. Thank you.” He patted my cheek.

“You are a blackmailer you know.”

He just gave me an angelic smile. I showed him my tongue.

I pouted. He pinched my lips together. I stopped pouting and made kissy faces at him. He grinned.

With that note, Heechul was taken for surgery. Siwon paced the waiting lounge with puppy keeping him company. Umma and Kibum also arrived. Imo and they began talking and discussing Heechul’s post-surgical care.

I talked over the phone with Minx and Byong who were under the care of Soo and Jiyeon at home. It was the first time I had parted from Byong for more a few minutes. I had a one-sided conversation with Byong about what was happening at home.

“Okay Soo noona has fed you banana.”

“Gurgle.”

“And you ate it like a good boy? That’s my baby.”

“Gurgle.”

“What? You did potty also? Why did you make Soo noona clean you? You naughty boy!”

“Squeal.”

“Minx and Ji noona are playing peek-a-boo with you?”

“Dadadada.”

“What? Sehun hyung came over too? With his mother?”

“Gurgle.”

“You played with them also?”

“Squeal.”

“You have been a very busy baby in the past two hours.”

“Squeal.”

“You want to talk to appa?”

“Dadada.”

“I love you too sweetheart. I will give the phone to him.”

I gave the phone to puppy so Byong could talk to him also.

They had a totally different conversation.

“Byong you’d better keep an eye on your Minx noona and Sehun hyung. I will come and ask you what they did.”

“Gurgle.”

“Good boy. I knew I can count on you to help me with them.”

“Dadadada.”

“You are the man of the house since harabeoji and I are not there. You should take care of your sisters.”

“Squeal.”

“No no you are not a small baby. Man of the house. You are a big boy.”

“Squeal.”

“Now be a good boy and give the phone to Minx noona so I can talk to her also. Appa loves you.”

“Appa, Sehun and I only played. Why should Byong keep an eye on us?”

“Love you baby girl. I was just talking to him. I don’t want you and Sehun to get hurt while playing.”

“I love you too appa. As if little Byongie can help us. Do you know he sat on our game board and did not let us play? Then he chewed one of our ‘connect four’ pieces. It was all gooey when Soo unni took it out of his mouth. When Sehun was kissing him, he bit his nose. Now Sehun has teeth marks on his nose. Appa stop laughing. You have to scold Byong for being a naughty boy.”

“Tell ummappa all this. He will take care of Byong.”

“I told ummappa. He said he will scold Byong. But all he did was baby talk with him.”

“Okay give the phone to Byong. I will scold him.”

“Here Byong, appa wants to talk to you.” Minx must have put the phone in Byong’s hand.”

“Dadadadadada.”

“Byong you must be a good boy and not disturb Minx noona when she is playing. And you should not bite people who kiss you.” Puppy said between his laughter.

“Squeal. Gurgle.”

“Apppaaa scold him properly. You should not laugh when scolding.”

“Baby girl I will explain to him when I am home. He will not understand over the phone.”

“Promise?”

“Yes promise. Love you baby girl. Now give me a kiss.”

“I love you too appa.” Minx blew a kiss over the phone.

After the call ended, I looked at puppy. “You are teaching Byong to spy on his older sister?”

“It’s the perfect solution for my peace of mind yeobo. I plan to even send him along with Minx and Sehun when they go out. If they are busy taking care of him or playing with him, they will have little time for mischief.”

“Oh.”

“Yes oh. We parents cannot be with them every place. But a younger brother can tag along easily.”

“We can send along our cub too. Two will be better than one.” Siwon offered his advice.

“You two have been thinking hard for solutions.” I grinned.

They nodded.

“Just be careful that they both don’t catch on about your spies. We will have a rebellion on our hands then.”

“Yes boss. No more spying talk in front of Minx.” Puppy saluted me.

“Jjong we shouldn’t even let the spies know that they are spying.”

“Right. Otherwise the spy can be bribed by the other side to stop spying and to feed us misleading info.”

I left the two to happily plan their spying missions. It would keep Siwon’s mind off the surgery for a while.

In about an hour’s time, the nurse wheeled out the baby.

It was a baby girl.

Choi Jinri had arrived into the world.

I was shocked when Siwon announced the name, saying it was in honor of me.

I looked at her and whispered, “Duckie you are beautiful.”

Jinri was a perfectly formed little baby. Siwon began crying. Uncle and puppy hugged him. We all had tears in our eyes. I couldn’t believe that my friends had bestowed such an honor on me. I was glad that they were a family now. A baby completed them. Siwon was such a gentle soul. Heechul was a perfect complement for him. They deserved to be parents of the little angel that god had sent into their care.

Soon, Doc came out and informed us Heechul was in recovery room. Placenta had detached very quickly. Siwon hugged him in thanks. Siwon and I moved to the NICU. Puppy and uncle got coffee for everyone and invited Doc to share the celebrations in Heechul’s room.

Siwon hugged his beautiful daughter and put her on his chest like I had showed him at home with the girls’ dolls. Tears kept falling down his face. I stood outside watching him through the window as his face wouldn’t let go of the awed expression at holding the tiny life in his large hands.

When he came out, he hugged me and cried again. I patted his back and let him cry. He needed to let the emotions out or he would cry on seeing Heechul making him worry.

“Jinki I have this miracle in my life thanks to you. First you brought Heechul into my life and now Jinri. I can never thank you enough.”

“Hush Siwon. You do not thank friends. You have bestowed an honor on me by giving her part of my name. Are you sure you don’t want to name her after your names or your parents?”

“We are very sure Jinki. We want her to be like you. Heechul and I were cowards for a long time. We still are many a times. But you have a rare courage. We want her to have your courage to fly high, to achieve her dreams.”

We hugged again and entered the room. Siwon was hugged by everyone. He began crying again when uncle and imo and hugged him. I understood his feelings. For Siwon who had lived without his parents love since living with Heechul a dozen years ago, it was overwhelming to find foster parents like imo and uncle.

I gave Heechul’s phone to puppy to message his father in Seoul the news of birth of Choi Jinri.

Within five minutes his father called and spoke with Siwon. It must have been a good conversation because Siwon was smiling through it. Later he explained that Heechul’s father had kept away to avoid media glare on them and the pregnancy. He will visit as soon as Heechul was home with the baby. He had requested puppy to send him baby pics.

Heechul was brought to the room and everyone whooped with joy and congratulated him. After ensuring everything was well with Heechul, everyone except me left for home. Puppy needed to sleep for some time for his night shift. Imo needed to be home to take care of kids in my absence. Umma and Kibum would return the next day.

I also left to talk to the NICU nurse, to give the new parents some privacy. They smiled their thanks to me. The nurse recognized me and asked about Byong. We chatted about for some time before moving to status of Jinri. She showed me through the door that Jinri was sleeping and did not need any breathing support. Nurse wanted to know if Heechul would be feeding as well. I didn’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see.

Nurse brought Jinri to the door for me to see. She looked a combination of her parents. If she took Siwon’s height, she might turn up as tall as puppy or even taller.

“Little Jinri I am your ummappa. Grow up well and bring lots of joy to your parents.”

The new parents were still kissing when I entered the room with a soft knock. They must not have heard me. They smiled sheepishly but I grinned. I showed them how to block the view of the bed from the door by pulling the curtains. Leaving them alone once again, I went to have some coffee returning to the room an hour later. Nurse would be brining the baby for her first feed about that time.

I asked Heechul if he wanted the doctor to check for milk or me to help. He grinned at me and whispered, “Jinx, Doc has never fed a baby. You are the only experienced person amongst us. If you cannot help, then we’ll call the doctor.”

I nodded and opened his hospital top. Siwon stared at us wondering what the two of us were doing. “Did you discuss this with Siwon?”

“Yes, but I don’t think he believed me.”

I felt around Heechul’s s and could feel the roughness of the glands. His chest felt like mine had after the surgeries. I squeezed and pulled a couple of times and promptly a small drop of colostrum appeared. I grinned at him.

“Success! Congratulations Cinder you are now proud owner of milk and can feed Duckie if you want.”

“You are amazing Jinx. It would have been very embarrassing with Doc or the nurse.”

“Don’t worry Cinder, the nurse does not have to see this if you feel shy. I can help you or Siwon can if you want.”

“Just you for now Jinx. Once I have learnt myself, Siwon can help. But it would be really embarrassing to have him help me in front of the nurse.”

Siwon’s eyes bugged out. “Cinder you are going to feed the baby? It is really possible? I thought you were pulling my leg about it.”

I told Siwon to go check on the baby. He left happily.

“Cinder, it will feel weird and embarrassing initially. But it depends on whether you want to do it or not. Anyway, after sometime, you will need to give her a bottle to supplement your feed as you will not produce enough to satisfy a growing baby. It all boils down to your choice.”

“I want to at least try Jinx.”

I nodded, “And be ready that after some time, not immediately but few days or weeks later, it will hit your libido as well.”

“What did you do when it happened to you?”

I raised my brows at him, “What do you think we did?”

“Oh!” Comprehension dawned in his eyes.

“Yes, oh.”

“Really?”

I nodded. I had no idea what was in his mind when he asked me this. He could think or do whatever he wanted to. He didn’t need to know what puppy and I did.

Siwon entered with baby and the nurse. Heechul nodded at him and he closed the curtains around us after handing me the baby, keeping himself and the nurse on the outside.

I helped Heechul to give his first feed to baby Jinri. The angelic smile on his face told me he could feel the effect of this special bonding. I took the baby to burp her and showed Heechul where to pat and the baby on his chest. He had practiced on the dolls at home but was afraid to apply it to the baby.

Once the nurse left with the baby, I asked them if I could catch some shut eye on the couch. Siwon had asked me to stay the night with him in the hospital. To avoid becoming a zombie the next day, I needed to catch whatever sleep I could whenever I could. As they talked, I went off to sleep.

When puppy came in the evening with the kids, we left the new parents alone for a while and went to the hospital cafeteria. Puppy told me about the interesting incident when he’d gone home to sleep.

Byong was creating a fuss as he was missing me a lot. It was the first time we had been parted for longer than a few minutes. Puppy took him to nap with him. Puppy was tired and he changed into track pants only and lay down to sleep. Byong closed his eyes and began searching puppy’s chest for his and on locating it he latched on and led hard.

“Yeobo I didn’t know whether to laugh or feel embarrassed.”

“Did you let him continue jagi?”

“Yes. It tickled but it felt amazing. I can understand now why you insisted on feeding him yourself. He had missed us and I didn’t have the heart to move him away. But I was embarrassed and worried about umma walking in on us.”

I laughed and hugged Byong. “Jagi, you did the right thing. I wish I could see it myself. Maybe, when I am back home? Would you?”

“erted tokki.”

“Always, for you. But it’s not ersion. I think it is sweet. Do you remember what you told me when you saw Minx do it for the first time? I feel the same. You were better at putting it in words. I don’t have enough words to explain.”

“It would be embarrassing yeobo.”

“Really? When have we felt embarrassed with each other? Except the first few nights when we began sharing our lives. Please, please I want to see. It would be totally awesome.”

Puppy blushed red and hid his face in Byong’s tummy. I was glad that puppy was such a loving father and he was there for our baby when I wasn’t.

I didn’t leave the hospital for the next two days. Heechul and Siwon were not very confident about being left alone to care for the baby. They were scared they would end up hurting the tiny one.

I missed my children terribly but my friends needed me more at that time. Byong and Minx came to the hospital to meet me and the new baby, every day. Umma was taking care of Byong at home when puppy was sleeping. And Byong had begun seeking solace with puppy by ling him.

Third day we brought Heechul and Jinri home.

It was a happy moment for all of us. My babies and I had an emotional reunion.

Jinri was an instant hit and Heechul and Siwon beamed with pride showing off their baby cub to everyone who visited.

Little baby would open her eyes at everyone who cooed at her. She was a charmer for sure. Minx cooed at her and Byong gurgled and tried to put his teething ring into .

Heechul smiled at that and winked at me. I shook my head in a no.

Imo took over caring for Heechul and baby, giving me time to spend with Minx and Byong. When Heechul took his afternoon nap, I went to sleep too. I was feeling very tired after three days in the hospital.

Byong wouldn’t leave my arms, so I brought him to the room to nap with puppy and me. My eyes danced with mischief and puppy blushed. I put Byong between us on the bed and puppy took off his t-shirt. Byong immediately turned to him and found his . He smiled at his father as he began ling him. Puppy kept blushing. I smiled at him and kissed his nose.

“You look complete jagi. Thank you for letting me watch.”

He tried to detach Byong, but he wouldn’t let go. I laughed and rooted for Byong to continue. Finally puppy gave up and submitted to Byong’s will. Once our baby had slept off, we laced our fingers and fell asleep whispering our love for each other.  

Jinri’s birth had added a new facet to our lives as parents.