“Happy birthday, dear Haeun. Happy birthday to you!”

Jongin watches with a smile on his face, as a gurgling baby with curious eyes looks around at all the people crowded around her. Adults and teenagers and young children alike are all huddled close together to celebrate little Haeun’s first birthday.

A little, pink headband with a bow rests on her small head and a frilly, pink and puffy dress covers her chubby body. All the adults begin to laugh as the baby bounces in her seat, kicking at air while high-pitched yelping escapes her thin lips. Jongin can’t help but laugh; Haeun’s always been quite the loud baby, always squealing or shrieking. But she’s a happy baby and Jongin wants nothing more than to pinch those rosy cheeks.

“Aw, how cute,” Haeun's mother—Hayoung—coos, “she’s so excited!” Hayoung grins as her gaze on her daughter shifts to the butterfly birthday cake in front of them. “Does my little bunny want some cake?”

As if understanding what her mother asked her, Haeun’s chubby arms stretch out in the direction of the cake as she lets out desperate whines. Chuckles erupt from the friends and family of the Parks and Hayoung starts cutting off pieces of cake for all the guests.

Despite all the chatter and movement amongst the guests, Jongin can only seem to focus wholly on the giggly baby with frosting painting her cheeks. The angel decides that he loves this sight the most. He loves the sight of Haeun, with a big smile on her adorable face, happy.

Four months after the little princess e, Jongin waits in anticipation as Haeun open and closes her small mouth, her arms flailing about. Her parents are sitting in front of her, eager and spouting words of encouragement. Jongin feels the excitement build up as Haeun begins bouncing, moving quicker as her parents inch closer. Haeun’s father—Taeyong—holds up his video camera and begins recording just in time for what they’ve been waiting for.

“Ma... m-ma… m-mama!”

Jongin jumps up from his cloud and shouts in happiness, feeling a burst of pride flow through him. Haeun’s parents are equally as happy as the guardian angel—though Jongin likes to think that he’s just a tiny bit happier than they are. Taeyong chuckles, his deep voice sending shivers down Jongin’s spine, and turns the camera so it’s facing him.

“Haeun’s first words, everybody!” he boasts. “She’s probably the smartest sixteen-month old baby out there! Just look at that cheeky grin on her face,” he swivels the camera around to face Haeun and her wide grin as she calls out ‘mama’ repeatedly before turning it back to himself, “she knows she smart and she knows that she’s smarter than all those other mediocre babies out there.”

Hayoung’s laughter is heard in the background and Jongin finds himself laughing along with her. “Honey, I can see your head getting bigger. You better stop bragging before it explodes.” She smiles and takes the camera off her husband to film more of their child.

Jongin laughs at the sight of Taeyong’s pouting face as he, unsuccessfully, tries to take the camera back.  When he realises he won’t be getting it back, Taeyong grumbles and folds his arms like a child who’s been denied his toy. “Haeun, your mother is the devil. She crawled up from the deepest pits of hell just to make my life a misery. She may seem sweet and innocent at first but then- then she gets you!” Taeyong lets out a playful ‘rawr’ before leaning forward and mercilessly tickling his daughter.

The little bunny shrieks in joy before laughing uncontrollably as she tries to squirm away. Hayoung shakes her head as she films her husband and daughter.

Taeyong pulls his daughter onto his lap before continuing to attack her with tickles. “It’s the tickle monster, Haeunnie! He’s going to gobble you up for tea!”

Haeun’s laughter increases in volume as her ear-piercing shrieks start to mix in. Taeyong lies down on his back and settles a wriggly Haeun on his chest, his tickles getting faster. The chubby baby drools on her father’s shirt as she crawls up and starts to hit his cheeks with both her small hands.

“Ow, ow, ow!” Taeyong frowns trying to escape his daughter’s attacks, to no avail. “You’re so vicious, Haeunnie. I bet you get that from your mother, I would never be so cruel and heartless as to attack my own father!”

“Which is why you would constantly bite him,” Hayoung interjects, a smug look on her face. Taeyong opens his mouth to protest before closing it and shrugging. His attention turns back to his daughter and Jongin can’t help but wonder how he was able to take it off the precious baby for even a second.

Jongin paces around on his cloud, chewing nervously on his bottom lip. It’s Haeun’s first day of elementary school and Jongin has more than a few things to worry about.

What if the teachers are mean?

What if Haeun doesn’t make any friends?

What if all the kids are mean to her?

What if Haeun got…

No, Jongin shakes his head and scolds himself for the thinking such terrible thoughts. Haeun will be fine, the teachers must be good people and kids make friends easily. Jongin has absolutely nothing to worry about.

He sees Haeun hop out the front door of her house, bubbling with excitement. Her short hair is tied into pigtails with pink bows and her uniform is free of any stains. Hayoung follows soon after with her husband and is quick to snap more photos of her cute daughter. Jongin can practically hear Taeyong’s reluctance to send Haeun away, the man even has a hard time going to the bathroom because it means less time with the little bunny.

“Don’t sulk, honey,” Hayoung says. “She’s going to have to go some time.”

Taeyong whines and Haeun bursts into a fit of laughter at her ‘silly’ daddy’s face. “Daddy,” Haeun says, trying to sound as mature as a five year old can be, “Haeunnie’s a big girl now! Big girls need to go to school and do hard things like ma… mata- meta… m-matha-”

“Mathematics?” Hayoung offers, earning a nod from the little girl.

“That one! What mommy said,” she confirms, a smile on her lips as she nods. Jongin chuckles at the bundle of cuteness that is Park Haeun, the little girl is too adorable for her own good.

Shaking his head, Taeyong mumbles a quick ‘fine’ before passing a bright pink backpack to Haeun. The little bunny eagerly takes it in her small hands and her face lights up at the sight of it. Pink, after all, is her absolute favourite colour.

It’s when Haeun turns seven that she develops a crush on her next-door neighbour and neither Jongin nor Taeyong are too pleased with that. Haeun is much too pretty and much too pure for that boy who dares to say hello to her in the morning. The boy with lisp that Haeun insists makes him all the more attractive. The boy that’s three years older than Haeun and a lot more mature. The boy with the terribly—terribly—chosen name, Oh Sehun.

Taeyong doesn’t like the kid and Jongin can’t say he disagrees.

“Haeun is far too young to be thinking about boys!” he would say whenever Haeun rambles on and on about her ‘prince charming’. “She shouldn’t be thinking about them until she’s at least thirty.”

And then Hayoung would roll her eyes, slightly irritated with her husband’s nonsensical whinging.

One day, much to Haeun’s excitement, Sehun decides to visit. The boy comes bearing a large, chocolate cake that his mom made and Haeun was even happier. Taeyong doesn’t bother hiding his displeasure, grumbling curses under his breath while his glare was directed at the poor ‘prince charming’.

Luckily, Sehun’s oblivious and he doesn’t notice the hatred oozing from Haeun’s father. The all-too-eager little girl drags Sehun up the stairs and into her very pink room. He doesn’t say anything against it, Sehun finds it cute and Haeun just seems so much younger than she actually is.

“Sehunnie!” she calls, handing the boy a male doll dressed in armour, “You can be the knight and Haeunnie will be the princess!”

Sehun smiles and holds the knight as he bows in Haeun’s direction. It’s at that moment when Jongin can’t help but think how nice it would be if Sehun moved to a land far, far away. But, for now, he’ll just be patient because Jongin tells himself that Haeun’s crush on Oh Sehun is nothing more than just an innocent phase.

He smiles to himself at the though of being Haeun’s knight in shining armour.  

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Hello, everyone! The first chapter is up but there will be a second part to this. I'm writing the through-the-years part because I want to show Haeun's personality transitioning from what it was to what it is. So I hope you don't mind it. 

Um just  to clarify, Jongin doesn't have a crush and isn't attracted to Haeun. He just has a brotherly need to protect her because she's young and innocent. He doesn't have any romantic feelings for seven-year old Haeun. 

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Delphinium-xx