AND ONE DAY…..HARU …CAME INTO OUR LIVES

“Sweetheart, are you ready?”

“Just a second Daddy, I’m buckling my backpack!”

Donghae leaned against the door frame with arms crossed, observing Haru with a fond smile. She was busy going back and forth between her closet and backpack already full to breaking point.

He saw her frown cutely, a finger on her chin, looking carefully at her bag in deep thought.

“Ah I know!” the brown-haired girl exclaimed while rushing to her bedside table where she took the first book on a top of a huge pile.

“Daddy, I’m almost done reading it so you need to buy me the second volume!” she said putting the book in her bag.

“What? Already?” Donghae asked with surprise. He raised an eyebrow while watching her fussing around, “you got the first volume three days ago!”

“I’m an avid reader like you!” Haru answered standing straight and turned to look at him with a bright mischievous smile.

“Right … you your bedside lamp after we went to bed so you could continue to read, didn’t you?” her dad assumed, walking to his daughter’s bed.

Haru pursed her lips, guilty, then she pouted puffing her chubby cheeks, her big brown eyes wide open. And Donghae inwardly sighted, knowing she was about to do:

“But Daddy, it was really good, I wanted to know what was happening next you know!!”

That bright kicked puppy look was a spitting image of Donghae.

When looking at her, the brown hair man felt a pang in his heart. He had heard that comparison a lot: “Haru looks so much like Donghae!!”

 “You could have waited and been patient to finish it, right?” He said as a reproach while closing the full Totoro-customized bag pack because Haru was having some trouble with it.

“You also read until late at night sometimes, I have heard you talking about it and I have already seen you the…”

“Oh ~ you’ve seen me?” his daddy interrupted her turning to her with a sarcastic look on his face, hands on his hips, “which means that you were out of bed in the middle of the night young girl!!”

“You know… «pee-break »” Haru tried to convince him, while fiddling with the sleeves of her blue jacket, an angelical and innocent air on her childish face.

Donghae sighted, put the bag on his daughter’s frail shoulders. He then caressed her long brown hair and ended up pinching her still chubby cheeks.

“I don’t like you staying up that late Haru, you are too young and you need sleep. A lot of sleep. So when I say turn off the light, you turn it off. It’s for your own good”.

“I am seven, eight in twelve days!!” his daughter answered back, one hand on her hip, the other energetically scrubbing her cheek her dad pinched.

“Oh sorry, you aren’t young… you are a baby” Donghae corrected himself casually, while ruffling her hair.

“Daddyyyyyyyy!!!” Haru whined, and scandalized with her now disheveled hair.

She tried her best to do her long and curly hair again, placing back her headband correctly, still grumbling as a matter of form.

“You are my baby is that wrong?” Donghae asked softly, touching the tip of her nose with his finger, with a sudden nostalgic look.

Haru felt her father’s sadness straight away, so she got closer to him and circled his waist with her arms too tiny to hold him entirely. She put her head on his tummy, her words slightly muffled by her nose buried in her daddy’s t-shirt.

“I will always be your little girl daddy, it will never change. Never. Even if you think that I’m still a baby, « baby » that is not my nickname you know?” Donghae blinked, not catching the remark about the nickname. But he left it aside and stayed silent when he felt his daughter tighten her embrace. “And also, don’t say it in front of everybody, especially in front of the uncles and even less in front of uncle Chullie because it’s a bit shameful and they would make fun of me!”

Donghae shook his head smiling when the little girl mentioned her uncles.

“You know that your uncle Heechul mocks everybody except himself and you also know he likes to compare me with a clown-fish!” he said circling Haru’s shoulders with a protective arm.

“But it’s because you always laugh with your mouth wide open daddy”, Haru thought it was smart to remind his father about that. She raised her nose out of his father’s shirt. “It looks like bubbles would pop out!”

“Hey little brat! I will start thinking your uncle Chullie is a bad influence!!” Donghae scolded her gently while tickling her.

Haru hid her giggles in Donghae’s white shirt totally wrinkled by now. After having laughed with her, Donghae tightened his hold around her shoulder slightly and with his other hand, he caressed her long brown hair tenderly and released a heavy sight.

“I know you will always be my little baby girl, sorry if I make you feel uncomfortable darling. I will call you my baby only when we are only the both of us…”

“You don’t have to, really daddy” Haru mumbled, rubbing her nose against his tummy.

Donghae started laughing, drawing away from her daughter’s warm, and then removed some strands of hair from her face and replaced her headband before landing a kiss on her forehead.

“Let’s go? »

The little brunette eagerly nodded with sparkling eyes. She ran to the stairs heading to the house entrance, her Totoro backpack which seemed weight twice her weight at least carried on her frail shoulders. She almost disappeared behind it!

Her overflowing enthusiasm made Donghae happy and his heart clench at the same time. He got closer to the window