oOo Present Time oOo

He the gold plating that indicated he was at the right room, his hand gliding over the door tag reading “Choi Minho”. Sliding the glass door open, he peeked into the room. Key had been waiting down the hall, letting him know Minho’s family would be there in the morning, but until then, they were the only ones here.

“Taemin couldn’t stand the blood when I asked them to take his clothes home to see if we could get the stains out, so Jonghyun took him somewhere to get air before he collapsed. You’d think he was the one that was hurt.” Key chuckled trying to lighten the tension in the hallway.

Although he wasn’t directly to blame, he felt guilty because he introduced Yuri to Minho. Not in a romantic interest kind of way, but Yuri had been new at the time and Minho was not only popular, but he was genuinely the nicest person in the entire studio, despite his fame. He all but forced them to spend time together, thinking Minho had Jinki, Yuri couldn’t sway him. And he was right; there was never any romantic attraction between the two. Minho really only had eyes for Lee Jinki and Yuri respected that, even gushed about it when Minho told her his plans for the older man. She found the pair to be absolutely fascinating; she adored them.

But the Choi family had different plans. When the four of them went to a family dinner at the Choi’s residence, the fact that Minho had never came out in the open about his relationship with Jinki ended up being the fault line that cracked everything wide open. They mistook Yuri for the person he always hinted at being involved with, and with Yuri being a delightful and respectable woman, they saw no reason why the two should hold off on marriage. Hell, they’d been together for going on six years by what Minho had been telling his mother, it was time. Behind Minho and Yuri’s back they met up with Kwon’s to discuss marriage.

When the two found out about it, it was practically too late.  The broadcasting companies got a hold of it, and it was sitting on Jinki’s coffee table loud and clear: Bachelor Choi Minho to marry production assistant. Key never indulged that information to Jinki, because he absolutely refused to talk about him, wouldn’t allow him to speak his name. So he helped Jinki get over it, helped him try to forget and not lay in misery like he did when he first found out.

Jinki nodded back at Kibum before softly closing the door to the hospital room. He rounded the corner only to stop when his eyes landed on Minho. It wasn’t as bad as he thought, although the wires scared the out of him. He faintly noticed the consistent beep of the heart monitor, steady. For a moment, he was only sure of one thing, and that was thanking God that the beep was there. He was alive and nothing else mattered.
He drew closer, hesitantly like every vile thing he’d thrown in Minho face or his memory would come back to haunt him in this one moment. He scooted a chair closer, sitting close enough to the bed to see the slightly blood stained bandages wrapped around Minho’s skull. He reached out to touch them, snatching his hand back when he realized what he was doing. So he just sat there for a moment, looking, remembering, trying to forget, crying, laughing a bit.

“You must think I’m crazy, sitting here, talking to you. Can you hear me? Do you even remember my voice?” He sighed, resting his head against the rail of the hospital bed. “This wasn’t supposed to happen you know. I meant it when I said enjoy your life. Enjoying means not getting your brains knock out through those gigantic eyes of yours. It doesn’t mean lying in a hospital bed, snoozing your life away. You need to wake up. Wake up so I can leave.”

He peeked up. No change. He laughed again. Not like he believed this would work. He was talking to a vegetable for all he knew. Except for the heart monitor beeped a little faster for a second, then returned to its steady pace. Like that meant anything.

“I said I never wanted to be here with you again. In a room, with all this time and space and nothing but time and space and silence. Because I’ve sat back, for months, after the anger has quieted itself down to like this dull roar, not screaming in my ear every damn morning when I wake up, and I played out what I would say IF by chance we were to cross paths again. It was a lot angrier and righteous, I can tell you that. But now…I’m sitting here, like some kind of loser, searching for – I don’t know- the right words to say to make your brain click. So I can leave.”

He stood abruptly, pacing the floor, an angry finger pointed at the man in some attempt of scolding that actually hid his fear.

“When you DO wake up, though, don’t think anything has changed. You remember that. Nothing has changed. But…I realize I’d rather have you up, running around, smiling that stupid smile of yours for the camera, getting married…having kids…experiencing that “future”…even if it’s with someone else..I rather you be doing that, than this. This isn’t you, this is…this is….”

He stopped, turning towards the window, opting to look out into the city, instead of Minho’s unanswering face. This wasn’t the Minho he was supposed to confront. This was a fragile man, fragile not the blusteringly strong smug protector that Minho was. No, this…looked like a man who needed Jinki’s protection, to be held and…

“Gods, I was so in love with you…like it was this revolutionary love that was like…so strong. It scared me. It was so strong that the world could have knocked me down a thousand times and I would have still stood up and fought because the world needed to see how much good was in this, and how everything that was bad was outside of our bedroom door and it could never set foot in it. Because we were everything to me.”

 Jinki trembled because his body didn’t know what else to do with the emotions. “I don’t know what to do with that, Minho. This is too hard….”
------
Minho sat in a dimly lit room, the only things he could make out where the silhouette of the chair he sat in, and a door with a light bursting through the seams. He sat there, sure that if he just got up out of his chair and walked to the door, he could leave. He tried it once before, his hand on the knob about to turn it, when he’d heard a voice.

At first, he thought it was God and that maybe what was on the other side of the door wasn’t an exit back to his life but the entrance to his afterlife. But the more he strained to hear, the more he realized that it wasn’t the voice of God; but it was the voice of his liberator.

Jinki.

So he sat still, impossibly still, trying to absorb the words as they bounced around in the empty room.

“I had these dreams, and in these dreams we’d travel to some exotic place, full of sandy beaches and foamy waves that at our feet. They were places I never been, because I never saw the need to go. But then you spoke of our future, and suddenly there was a need to see this world with you, maybe to see the things I saw through your eyes, so I could love them the way that you love them. And I woke up, and I planned these trips because we were happy in these dreams….”

To say life wasn’t fair would be an unjust statement because life WAS fair, according to how he looked at things. He lived a healthy life, he still had his parents, his career was wonderful and he had someone by his side that would take care of him. But those were surface level superficial justifications to smile.

He’d always been unsure if his parents would have accepted him if he’d told them about the way he loved, his career forced him to fight for privacy from a world that wanted to know everything about him, and the someone he had by his side name wasn’t Lee Jinki.  She didn’t smell like sandalwood and cherry in the mornings. She never understood the reason he dog-ear pages in books wasn’t because he was saving his place, but the words touched him. She didn’t get his affinity for breaking out into random monologues he’d remembered over Sunday brunch, just because he could.

He and Jinki clicked, even when they were clashing over things. The spiciness level tolerable for noodle soup or whether Jinki should get a pet because a vet should have a pet; or if they should take out a loan to add a nursery to the house, because loans accrue and grow, as should they.

And that connection was lost because of a severe misunderstanding that Minho had fought to correct for months, without knowing exactly how to. But he knew one thing. If this was some kind of sign, even if it wasn’t, even if it was his brain playing tricks on him, he’d take it as a sign. Setting his jaw, he eyed the door, before standing resolved and kicking the chair back. Marching towards the door, he faintly heard.
“But I need you to wake up…”

He turned the knob.

Minho opened his eyes, blinking rapidly against the bright light from his bed lamp. Everything was blurry, so he focused on one thing, a vase full of flowers (God, he hated flowers) next to his bed. Experimentally he blinked a few times more, wanting to clear his vision. It worked eventually, enough for him to see Yuri’s arm laying softly on top of his blanket, open in a silent snore. He chuckled, being careful to not wake her as he tried to sit up in the bed.

The pain meds worked wonders because apart from the slight dizziness he felt as he righted himself up, he felt only a slight throb at the base of his skull. He reached for a cup of water, his throat feeling like he’d been a salt basin for fun. Blinking again, he suddenly remembered his dream and scoured the room for a sight of Jinki somewhere. But it was empty, save the two of them. He was beginning to think it was all a dream, that he had imagined Jinki’s voice in some state of mad delirium and need, when he heard the door creaking open, his eyes wide with hope. He couldn’t hide the disappointment on his face when his mother came in.

She glanced at him for a second before full onset panic kicked it, her screaming for the doctors like he was holding his head in his lap and not a cup of water. Moments later, doctors entered, tests were run, brain waves monitored or whatever they did behind that glass wall. He was out of the woods, they declared but they’d keep him for another day to be on the safe side.

Kibum perched like a mother hen in his room at all times, after his parents left, assuring Ms. Choi, that if anything happened between today and when he was released, she’d be the first person called. Then, when no one was expecting it, the first domino fell around six that evening, while Minho, Yuri and Kibum were all watching a rerun episode of Boys over Flowers.

Yuri sat at the edge of the bed, completely engrossed in the stylish good looks of Lee Minho, that she sighed airily, her hand playing in her hair like a school girl. “Jan Di was sooo lucky. I mean look at him. I’d DIE if I were able to kiss him. And then the marriage proposal at the end? Aigoooo…”

CHOI Minho glared at the back of her head, while he finished a bowl of grapes, tossing one. “Yah, you nitwit. You GOT a Minho right here.”

“Yeah but Lee Minho is sooooooooo handsome, and I’m sure he doesn’t chomp his jowls like a pig when he eats pasta, or laugh with food in his mouth.  And we don’t kiss and you didn’t propose to me. What Jan Di is experiencing is true love.” Yuri blinked, clucked her tongue and nodded, before turning to her fiancée, who sat behind her glowering at the screen.

“Yah…Minho…”

“What? You want me to start acting too? Put a million little curls in my hair and wear a fur like some pretentious jerk? I’m not doing it Yuri….I don’t even like fish cakes…”

“No.” Her face hardened for a second, the seriousness of her features was more than he could take without lifting an eyebrow at her. He chewed loosely on the mouth full of grapes in his mouth, taken aback by how resolved she sounded. He gulped.

“No, what.”

“I don’t want to marry you. You don’t want to marry me. I’m not doing it. ”

She turned to Kibum, maybe smiling the brightest smile she’d smiled in months, as she had actually confessed this to him the night before, her face all splotchy and red from crying herself insane. She felt nothing towards him but what a sister would for a brother. Sure he was handsome, but he was very gay, which would damper the libido of any sane woman. He had become one of her best friends, they all had. But Minho? He was more like her spirit animal if anything else. But a lover? No. Not ever. That wasn’t the type of ETERNAL marriage she wanted to be locked into.

“It’s not that simple Yuri. If it were, we wouldn’t be ten months deep into a fake engagement.”

“It’s not fake. It’s VERY real. But so is the love that was divided because of it. I don’t like to screw around with karma like that. I go through with this and I’ll never run across real love.”
Minho blinked. “Sounds like someone planned on having the milkman visit while I was at work. You vamp of a woman.”

“Yeah yeah.” She rounded the bed, enveloping him in the biggest hug she could manage without pulling at any wires or tubes. “I’m going home now to find a way to totally ruin this engagement. You get well. I’ll need you to make yourself useful when I figure something out.”Before she pulled back, she opened his hand, dropping something cold and hard into his palm. She kissed him sweetly on the forehead, internally enjoying his bewilderment.

She winked at Kibum, making her exit, ignoring the way Minho called after her. He reached for his cellphone, because she was going to turn around, come back in here and talk this out like a rational human being, instead of being some kind of a hero. Then he actually noticed what was in his hand.

The necklace and ring he gave Jinki. He stared at it for a second, before leaning back in his bed and smiling. Jinki had been there, it hadn’t been a dream, and he’d heard his voice. The woman walking out was an afterthought as he slid the ring on and off his finger. “Yeah, sure Yuri…do what you want.” He whispered quietly, never taking his eyes off the word “Ontokki.”

Key just grinned. He knew there was a reason he always liked that girl.
 
 oOo 3 months later oOo

“So you’re not coming over, I assume?”

Kibum sighed loudly into the phone. “No, they are having a watching party at Gwibbon’s house and if I don’t show up, she’ll implode the studio on Monday and I don’t feel like hearing her death banshee screech up close and personal. You forgive me right?”

“It’s not THAT big of a deal, it’s just Strong Heart.”

“That’s what I said, but with all of Super Junior appearing on this one, she’s apparently spazzing and wants to make this a big event. I don’t know. But I’ll stop by the clinic tomorrow and bring you breakfast.”

Jinki hummed in response before disconnecting the line. He could just eat Kibum’s portion of the dinner he cooked for lunch tomorrow. Or maybe he could feed it to Taemin. He shrugged and sat back, clicking the television on.

Strong Heart was mostly funny tonight, especially with Leetuek and his gang controlling the atmosphere. Jinki was about to get up and get another serving of rice, when SeungGi announced that they had a special guest appearance tonight after the break. Jinki squinted at the screen, his glasses lying on top of his head. He pulled them down, but a commercial has started playing. Shrugging, he ventured off into the kitchen.

oOo
“You SURE he’s going to be watching tonight. It’s not like I can do this all the time, you know.”

“For the love of god, YES you idiot. I’m literally watching him, like some kind of damn stalker across the street. You know how idiotic I look? Nevermind idiotic. I look like some kind of ert holding these binoculars like this.”

“I TOLD you not to wear the trench coat. I didn’t care how fashionable it was, it’s STILL a trench coat and it’s STILL the middle of June. Of course you look like a ert.”

“You’re a waste of skin and bones, you tall jackass. If anything happens, I’ll call. Plus, this morning I did a little something that would guarantee he wouldn’t be changing any channels tonight. Are you where YOU need to be?”

“Yes, Mother…”

“When I see you I’m going to smack that stupid grin off you face. With my foot.”

“Yes, Master.”

“MY FOOT. My foot and your face.”

“I’m hanging up. Be alert, Green Hornet. Be alert. [click]”

oOo

Jinki slid back into his seat; right as the show came back on, shoveling the rice into his mouth, before reaching for his drink. The host stood to introduce the special guest, saying that he’d just arrived at the studio and would be joining them shortly. Jinki made sure his glasses were down this time, trying to see who this so called special guest was.

Then he choked on his rice.

Minho and Yuri glided onto the stage, taking seats right beside each other, their smiles lighting up for the camera.

“You got to be ing kidding me…” He wheezed out in panic.

Jinki scrambled for the remote, while at the same time trying to pat himself on the back, still choking on the sticky grains of rice in his mouth. He was trying desperately to make the control work, but it wasn’t responding to anything he was doing. He flipped the controller over; confused at seeing there were no batteries in the remote. He had turned the T.V. manually, the channel he was looking for already selected. He frankly recalled watching the morning news before he left the house, but…

His thoughts were interrupted when SeungGi shouted out “Two LIES and One TRUTH!” the audience and show members clapping.

“Minho! Yuri! You were late! Minho is a usually punctual person. What was the holdup?”

Minho grinned winsomely, flashing a bit of teeth, and Jinki swear to god, thinks it’s going to make him sick. He hadn’t laid eyes on Minho since that night in the hospital, getting a report of a clean bill of health from Taemin the next day. He’d shut out the night like it was a plague upon mankind, forgetting his words, forgetting Minho’s face, forgetting EVERYthing, in lieu of sanity.

“We,” he stated, taking a moment to wink at Yuri to his left, “were finishing up some things involving our marriage.” The audience “ooh’ed and aaah’ed” at the couple, further guaranteeing that Jinki would never watch this stupid show again. Jinki rolled his eyes, not exactly sure why he hadn’t flipped his T.V. off the table and swan dived into open traffic below. He didn’t turn, although.

“This also ties into our two lies one truth story. I’m sure everybody would like to know more about Minho and I.” Yuri was beautiful tonight, in a classic little black dress, but that didn’t stop Jinki from wanting to puke all over it. Still, he didn’t turn the T.V., apparently satisfied with torturing himself.

“One. Me and Yuri love each other dearly. We can’t live without each other. Our marriage will be the happiest day of our lives.” The audience cooed at Minho, the women on stage behind him pressing their blushed cheeks, in envy or appreciation, one couldn’t tell.

“Two.” Yuri supplied. “We are getting married on the 28^th of August.”

“And Three.” Minho waited a second, his eyes glued to the camera, which unsettled Jinki because his eyes held everything and at one point in his life, Jinki wanted everything the man could give. He blinked rapidly like it would force the imaginary connection to close.

“I am in love with someone else.” Yuri smiled brilliantly at the third one, ignoring the look of pure confusion on the host and guest face.

SeungGi looked around, not sure if this was part of the program, but he didn’t interrupt the two speaking. Yesung, however, did.

“Are we supposed to guess because...”

“Naaaaaaaaaaaah. That’ll take the fun out of it.” Yuri stated before facing the camera saucily “And I want the audience to know that I find Lee Minho irresistibly char-“

“Yuri! For Christ sakes.”

“Sorry! Sorry!” But silently mouthing to the camera a flirty “Call Me.”

At that moment, Jinki‘s phone started to vibrate violently on the coffee table. Jinki grabbed for it blindly, picking up the phone. “OMG! I’m watching it now! I didn’t know Jinki! I’m…I’m coming over right now! I’ll be there in like 5 minutes.” Kibum whimpered into the phone, and it sounded loud, like he was outside fighting traffic, which must have meant he was really on his way. Jinki didn’t even respond as he placed the phone down, literally on his feet.

The slimy bastard is in love with someone else? How many times can a person fall in love?!? What in heaven’s name did I do, what crime did I commit to have to go through this? 

He learned closer to the T.V, because being a sadist was apparently a personality flaw, wondering who it could possibly be. And just because God loved Jinki so much [he was more than confident the Big Man upstairs was having a laugh riot at this], the show cut to commercial.

“!” He threw his glasses at his T.V., and literally had the biggest manfit the world had ever heard, but luckily will never see. He ripped his shirt open, like some kind of maniacal psychopath, watching the buttons fly left and right. He’d just bought that shirt too. He kicked his ottoman, and it hurt, which pissed him off even more. The string of curse words that left his mouth frankly didn’t make much sense and he wasn’t even sure they were real words all together.

Hopping on one foot, he made his way back into the kitchen, grabbing a tumbler and filling it with ice. He turned too quickly for his chiller holding his hard foreign liquor, banging his head against the open cabinet door. “SON of a !” He slammed the tumbler down, almost breaking it, in favor of slapping a hand against his throbbing forehead. He was circling the drain, this is how he would be remembered before he went mad with panic and was forced into some crazy hospital for the mentally deficient and broken of heart. He could feel the cool fabric of the white coat they’d slip around his body, the imaginary friend he called out to that he had made up to sequester the pain.

He filled his glass to the very edge, and was going to down it in one shot (because drunken stupor sounded like most brilliant of all plans at the moment), when the doorbell rang.

“Oh! Great timing Kibum! You can watch as I go insane. Watch as I howl at the moon, or start talking to a black raven like my name was Poe! Quoth the raven, nevermore Kibum! QUOTH IT AND YOU QUOTH IT GOOD! You hear me!?! Damn everything to hell!”

He flung the door open, ready to recite even more of the poem just because he could, when the world tilted and he had to grab onto the framework of the door to keep his balance.

Minho stood there, all six feet of undeniable handsome and charm. A look so serious writ across his face that Jinki couldn’t even find the room to breathe.

Without hesitation, Minho closed the space between them, fusing his lips to Jinki, pushing his body against the wall. He kicked the door shut, but without ever ever removing himself from Jinki’s space. And Jinki ate every last bit of it, tried to inhale every inch of Minho, because what was happening was something that he only dreamed of in his weakest hour, when the scotch couldn’t distract him long enough.

Then it clicked. He shoved against the man, hard, not caring as the man staggered back a few steps, wiping at his lips.

“What in the HELL…”

“Two truths and one lie, Jinki.” He stalked over to Jinki, the glint in his eyes hard and unremorseful. He grabbed the cuff of Jinki’s abused shirt, pressing until Jinki was back against the wall. When the man made to move again, Minho took hold of both of his hands, securing them above his head. Jinki fought against the restraint of Minho’s hands, and failed. Minho then pressed his full length against Jinki, not caring at how the man sputtered indignantly.

 “You’ve got three, maybe two second to let me go...”Jinki grounded out, ready to head- the man or something, anything.

“Or what?” Minho growled in his ear, temptingly, a smug grin of satisfaction pulling the corners of his mouth up.

Minho buried his face in Jinki’s neck, taking time to gently bite and kiss on the skin there, something he missed doing fiercely.

“As I was saying. Two lies and one truth, Lee Jinki.” He supplied, murmuring into Jinki’s soft neck.

“I've already seen your little show, Minho. Matter of fact it’s playing right now for the ENTIRE world to see.  So if you’re here to prove something...-“

“If you could for ONCE, just shut up and let me finish. God!” He ran his palm down the front of Jinki’s shirt, pausing for a second before sliding it up under to meet hot skin. He circled around, till he had a firm grip on his waist. “One. I willingly entered into an engagement with a woman I’d known for less than a year.” Jinki rolled his eyes, looking away in disgust.

Minho wasn’t deterred. “Two. I haven’t thought about you one day since you walked out of the doors of OUR house.”

“You mean yours and Yuri’s house?”

Minho took Jinki’s lips again, if only to hush him up. Pulling at his bottom lip as he finished, he smiled in satisfaction as Jinki ran his tongue over the bruised flesh. “If you don’t find a way to let me finish, you’re going to pay for it.” Jinki gasped at Minho’s words. He only talked this way to him when he was either really pissed off, or really….

“Three. I love you. I love you. I love you. I can’t say enough because you don’t seem to understand that I’m not playing. This is not a game to me. You were not a game to me. You are the most tangible piece of evidence that I’ve done something good on this earth. That all the wishes I made as a kid to send me you, even when I didn’t know it was you, were real. They came true and I found you and, I swear to God, I’ve never cried as much as I’ve cried over you, to a point where it was almost embarrassing. You wouldn’t answer my phone calls, you moved. Kibum was sworn to secrecy. You fell into this black hole, took my heart with it and everybody is all “what’s wrong with you” and I want to slap the fire out of them because nothing mattered and…”

Jinki just stood there, with his mouth hanging open and his brows stitched together in confusion.
“You’re not getting married?”

“To Yuri? No. It was arranged…we had nothing to do with it. I tried to tell you that ten months ago but-“

“Do you think I would have listened anyway? There was a 1000pt font headline waiting for me when I got out of the shower letting me know the man I wanted to spend my future with, was getting married. What kind of reaction did you think I would have?”

“Maybe listen to me? Trust me? Help me find a solution? But I got nothing Jinki. And I understand the anger but when you left, I had nobody in my corner. Nobody understood and I didn’t know what to do. I collapsed like a child.” Minho lowered Jinki’s hands, letting them go, in favor of staggering to the couch and slumping down on it. He waited without words for Jinki to join him on the couch, although he did it hesitantly.

“So what you’re saying is…you’re here for me? Am I the person you were in love with?”

Minho looked indignant for a second, surprised Jinki had to even ask. “Were? Baby, I am in love with you. I never stopped.”

“Well what do we do now?” He gestured helplessly, again, not really sure of what to do with his arms.

“We’ve got forever to find out….”

He reached out to softly turn Jinki’s face until he was looking at him. “I’m going to kiss you now.” He closed the space, slowly, taking in that Jinki didn’t fidget or fight, and softly kissed the man he’d now understood he’d always fight for. No matter what.

oOo Sometime in the past oOo

“You ever thought about what’s out there?” Jinki and Minho were out on the fire escape again, gazing at the stars, the city lights, everything and nothing at the same time.

“You mean out there in the world?”

“Yeah like out there . We’ve achieved our dreams, career wise. What’s left to do?”

“I could spend a lifetime loving you? That’s a full time job.”

Jinki giggled. “You’re such a cheeseball.”

Minho laughed loudly, the sound echoing off in the distance, maybe the stars heard him. “Well, how I see it is, there’s more out there to achieve than just our jobs. In this lifetime, I’m happy. I’m happy with me. I’m happy with you. I’m just happy and if there is anything out there that I can pile on top of this happiness, I’ll go and find it.”

“We are so serious in this lifetime, you know. We’ll probably be reincarnated into pop idols or something in our next lives. How cheesy, right?”

“Well I don’t know about you, but I could see myself enjoying that. I can’t sing worth a damn, but maybe in my next lifetime I will be able to! But I’d looove to see you dance. Your feet don’t even attempt to point in the right direction when it comes to dancing.”

Jinki shoved lightly against him. “As long as I meet you, I wouldn’t care if I was the cheesiest idol alive. I’d be perfectly content.”

“Hmmm. Me too…” Minho pecked him on the lips. “Me too.”

oOo Sometime in the future oOo

They sat in a park, right at sunrise, something they did on Saturday mornings, when Jinki clinic was empty and Minho’s schedule was clear. Watching the sun come up over the horizon, they cuddled closer, no matter what the temperature was, content to just be in each other’s presence.

“DAD!! LOOK! LOOK! It’s coming up!” Eunhee squealed in delight, as if this wasn’t the millionth sunrise she’d seen. Jinki chuckled at their daughter’s excitement.

“She gets this from you, you know.” Minho said as he nipped softly at Jinki’s ear. “The whole spazzing thing.”
“I don’t spazz. I ‘undulate energetically’. It’s a good form of exercise.”

Eunhee turned around, wondering why her Dads weren’t paying her any attention. “Ohmygod, you two are gross!” She fake gagged, then giggled infectiously at her own humor, holding her middle in laughter.

“The over-reacting she gets from you too.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“I love it when you tell me what to do.”

“And I just plain love you.”