Currently, I’m decorating the Christmas tree that I just took out from our garage. I was so proud of myself to be able to carry each pieces all by myself, add the tons of boxes I had to bring along which contains the other Christmas decorations. It’s just the 10^th of December but fifteen days isn’t for long and also, Kyungsoo’s going to arrive home later tonight. I want to surprise him with an already decorated house.

Not that he would like the sight of it. He would actually like the fact that he didn’t have to help decorate. How nice of him, right? He hates house decorating the most, he’s only good at cleaning.

With my manly strength, I carry the ladder stock towards the still ‘’ tree. I look down the opened boxes by it where the Christmas balls and other stuff to be hung were kept. “Eomma Eomma climb?” Yohan who was sitting on the couch while watching his cartoon calls. I turn briefly. “Ne~ Eomma will climb like Spiderman.” I answer like a kid.

“Alright, one at a time.” I carry one box and placed it on the first step of the ladder so I could reach for it every time. The remaining space on the step, I lift myself up since I want to start at the top down to the bottom. “Eomma Yohan help~” I hear my son answer and I already heard his cute tiny steps on the tiled floor. “No no—baby, Eomma’s fine. You go watch TV.” I say as I carefully hang the balls to wherever I want to place it on.

I glance to the side and saw my son having his neck stretched all the way as he looks up to me. My cute penguin reaches for one ball from the box and stretches his short arms up. Since it barely made any help, I still lean closer and reach for it. “Aigoo~ Good boy, ne?” I tell before placing the ball he gave to one side.

And the penguin seemed to have enjoyed my compliment and constantly did it. “Aii—thank you—Oh, baby, you should go back there now. Yohanni helped a lot already, hm?” I try to stop him since he’s giving too much at such a quick pace. I can’t even think of the right spot to put it anymore. “Yohan help. . .” He pouts which made me weak. He puts all of his arms up wanting to be carried.

“Uh. . . Baby, we can’t climb both, it will be very heavy and Eomma and Yohan will fall. Want that?” I ask and he shakes his head. “Yohan climb.” He repeats. “No no, baby. Go back to the couch, c’mon.” I give him a pleading nod as I lean a little on the ladder. “Eomma help. . .” He stomps his feet. “Baby, Eomma’s fine. Promise~” I showed my pinky swear.

“Eomma help.” He still insists while hopping. He then scoots down to another box and reaches for the star which is supposed to be placed on the very top. “Tar~” He chants and I smile back while nodding. “You want Eomma to place that on Mr. Tree?” I ask. He grins excitedly while nodding. So I reach for it and then glanced at the top most part of the tree. I took another two steps up on the ladder since I was too short.

“Yohan-ah~ after Eomma put this, you will go back to TV, arrachi?” I ask while glancing at him. He nods and starts looking around other more decorations scattered around. I stretch my arm out ready to place the star when I heard russling sound and when I turned my head, I saw Yohan grabbing the outlets of the Christmas lights. “Yohan! No, no touch!” I exclaim.

He only flops down while giggling and being the growing toddler, he grabs it even more and was putting it close to his mouth. “No! Not food! Yoha—Ahh!” I accidentally turn my foot and lost my balance completely. Out of reflex, I grab onto the edge of the ladder but it only made it worse.

I completely fell together with the ladder falling right on me.

That sudden jolt on my body when I felt the heavy thing land right on me made me dizzy, including the uncomfortable and numbing feeling I was starting to feel on my right forearm. I just accidentally used it to support myself and it just did a clicking sound—I ing hear it. “A-ahh! Oh my go—ahh!” I yelp in pain as I try to remove the ladder from me with one hand.

Yohan skips fast to me and starts crying. “Eomma eomma eomma!” He flops down and cries seeing me cry out of pain. “U-ugh. . . Y-yohan. . .” My head falls back as I close my eyes tightly. My son couldn’t even do anything but to cry while hugging my neck. I succeeded on getting off the ladder from me and I pull myself up to stand. I can’t move my right arm and I feel like screaming because of the pain it was giving me.

“Eomma! Ma-ma-ma. . . hurt!” Yohan continues crying. He tugs on my shirt while trailing behind me. Tears were uncontrollably trickling down my cheeks as I rush to the kitchen. My wrist was twisted and I was afraid to touch it. I was panicking inside and I was losing my balance the whole time. I try to glance at the clock, it was only five in the afternoon. Kyungsoo’s probably on travel still.

I grab my phone with my healthy hand and try to call my husband. He was out o reach. “K-kyungsoo—ahhh. . .” I wince as I feel the pain again. I struggled to walk out of the kitchen again while dialing another number. I hope Baekhyun’s at home right now, please. . .

“Hello?” Once I heard his voice from the other line, I start rushing to the front door. “A-are you home?” I ask while crying. “Yes—are you crying?” He asks. “Q-quickly. . . Baek—I think I broke something—just go here it’s so painful!” I cry out. Yohan was already hopping while crying hard, he was trying to be carried by me, like he wants to hug me but I can’t. “Yohan, just—Eomma’s fine, h-hm?” I murmur as I look away from my twisted wrist. I only heard Baekhyun’s faint voice from the other line and it got cut off.

In no time, I heard fast footsteps outside my door. “Iseul-ah!” He knocks in panic and I quickly opened the door right away. Once he sees me, his eyes dart down to my wrist and I heard him cuss under his breath. Without any more word to further the pain I’m feeling, he didn’t forget to carry my son first and then grabbed my healthy hand. He drags me out of the house and lets me walk gently.

“Calm down, hm.” He hushes softly as we rush out of the gates. I try to control my breathing as I sob. “I-I was decorating my Christmas tree—I just—“ Don’t stress yourself more. Talk later.” He speaks. As soon as we arrive in front of his car—to which the engine’s already on, I think he was about to leave when I called—just by his house, he lets me go into the passenger’s seat. “I-I’ll hold Yohan.” I muffle since I know he doesn’t have a baby seat at the back but then when I entered, I saw a little girl at the back seat. “Gaeul-ah, could you hold this baby for Appa first?” Baekhyun was rushing to open the back seat.

The kid looked like this,

I was too blank to even process everything.

I weakly glance behind and saw the cute girl carrying Yohan on her lap. My son looked scared but he wasn’t crying, maybe because it was also a kid, not an adult. Without even realizing it, I saw Baekhyun already in the driver’s area. He turns to the back again. “Gail, could you pass the neck pillow to Appa?” He tells, he was still calm although he looked worried as well.

[Dialogue/s spoken in English are italicized starting from here.]

“Yes, dad. Is she alright?” I hear the girl’s voice speak in English while handing a neck pillow. Baekhyun placed it gently over my affected arm. “Don’t move it. Just relax.” He hushes but I was too engrossed of his daughter’s English. Like literal ENGLISH—I mean, not the American one. You know what I mean. “She’s fine sweetie, just hold her son for a while. And Gail, baby, don’t speak in English, it’s rude if there’s someone who can’t understand, alright?” Baekhyun answers back and starts driving. “Yes, Appa. I’m sorry, I won’t do it again.” The little girl speaks in Korean this time although they were only two words.

 “W-what?” I ask. “I just told her you’re fine.” He mutters in between pants. For that one sentence, he halla said a lot. If I would rate Baekhyun’s skills, he could pass in a paramedic’s team. He was so calm the whole time. I even forgot about my panic already although I was still in pain as .

“I’ll call Kyungsoo, isn’t he coming back today?” He asks. My head falls back to the seat as I close my eyes tight. I don’t even want to look at my wrist. “Calm down, the doctor’s gonna pull it back to its position and then—“What??” I exclaim. “I said calm down, you’re putting more pressure on your hand. Just relax.” He tells. “If I can, I could have done it but I worry that I do something wrong and make it worse but believe me it isn’t that bad. I’ll just text Kyungsoo later. He’s going to be worried but you relax first.” He adds.

I’ll just trust him on that.

Once arrived at the hospital, Baekhyun guided me all the way while his daughter trails behind holding my son’s hand. “Y-you daughter’s so pretty.” I muffle while nibbling with my lips since I’m starting to panic again seeing the hospital. Baekhyun just gives me a simple chuckle while nodding.

Yeah, he might have found me weird to still compliment anyone through this pain I am having at the moment.

_ _ _

And because I couldn’t bear the most painful five seconds of my life when the doctor realigned my wrist. I could not explain the pain through simple words. I felt abnormal for a while when I saw such sight.

“Thank you for helping by the way.” I speak as Baekhyun walks me out of the clinic room after my wrist and forearm was immobilized by the nurses and now it was nicely wrapped and I had a splint as well. He was carrying Yohan while his daughter was walking by his other side. “Sure. Kyungsoo’s on his way here. I called him through your phone and do you know that he almost cussed when I said it? Not just because you were injured but because I was with you.” He said while laughing.

My eyes bulge out in surprise. Of course, Kyungsoo never cussed. Well, at least I haven’t heard him say it loudly.

“Anyway, I haven’t introduced my daughter properly yet. This is my angel, Abigail, Byun Gaeul.” He carries Yohan with one hand as he puts his other onto the little girl’s shoulder. The kid smiles at me and waved a hand. “Gaeul, what’s the right thing to do?” Baekhyun asks. “Ah~ I’m sorry, Appa. Annyeonghaseyo.” The kid gave me a polite bow afterwards. “Good girl.” Baekhyun the kid’s hair and it made me smile.

“You seem to have raised her well even if you’re alone.” I mutter softly so the kid would not need to hear. Baekhyun only gave me a smile while nodding. “Her mother’s my best friend too, she will always be a gift from Angela. I had to do my best, I can’t slack off on being a single parent. Although it’s pretty tough since Gail’s a girl and what do I know, right?” He explains.

“By the way, is she staying in the house now?” I ask. Baekhyun was about to answer when we heard heavy footsteps coming our way. Once I meet eyes with my husband, I rush to him and he quickly holds me on my healthy arm while looking at my other. “I already arrived home when Baekhyun called and so I saw the mess in the house too. Is it that bad?” He asks in worry while checking it out. “It was earlier but after the treatment, it got a bit fine.” I answer calmly before tiptoeing to give him a longing kiss on the lips.

I cut it off right away and turn to Baekhyun who was only smiling at us. “I want to thank you for helping my wife.” Kyungsoo speaks. Baekhyun chuckles back. “Sur—“But I don’t want to. She still finds you hot. But I appreciate your help.” My husband continues and I just had to slap my own forehead with my healthy hand. “Oh my goodness, why’d you say that.” I groan and I couldn’t even look at Baekhyun anymore.

“Anyway. . .” I see Kyungsoo glancing at Gaeul. “I don’t know who she is, I guarantee you. Who is she?” He asks and I had the urge to strangle him right now because he only made sound more obvious that he already knows. “Oh, right. . . Well. . .” Baekhyun puts Yohan down and the toddler quickly skips to us and hugged Kyungsoo’s leg. “I haven’t told you yet but I have a daughter. This is Gaeul. I'll tell you the whole story later so you would understand.” Baekhyun speaks and lifts the little girl up to his arms.

“Oh, I am greatly surprised. You shocked me Baekhyun. Could you see the astonishment on my face? I did not expect this at all. Why didn’t you tell earlier? Did you already tell Iseul? Cause she hasn’t told me anything although we talk on the phone every day, did you tell her not to tell me? You trusted the right person, she’s a secret keeper. I never had even the slightest clue.” Kyungsoo asks with his awful acting—he’s the worst liar ever—and I was already burying my face on his shoulder out of shame. “Ah. . . Not necessarily.” Baekhyun answers with uncertainty since Kyungsoo’s words would just bewilder anyone. Even little Gaeul was looking at him like he’s the weirdest ahjusshi she’s ever met.

“Alright, shut up. Let’s go.” I cover his mouth with my healthy hand but he pushes it down. “Hello, nice to meet you little girl. I’m Do Kyungsoo. Your mixed race made you into a very beautiful young lady.” He speaks in English while offering a hand shake. Baekhyun blinked as he looks back at him. , this brilliant moron. “Have I told you that she’s mixed?” The guy asks. Kyungsoo opens his mouth to speak but nothing came out of him for a while.

He glances at me and I could see the ‘Help me’ words in his eyes. He turns to Baekhyun again. “Well. . . that is a palpable common logic, Baekhyun. You see, as to what you’ve told us when we first met, you just came from London so I automatically assumed that she would understand me better if I speak in English and also. . . well. . . it’s inevitably noticeable that she’s mixed race. Her uh. . . doll-like features and blonde hair.” Kyungsoo smartly turns the table around.

And Baekhyun seems to buy it.

“You have a point.” The guy nods while chuckling. “But her hair’s actually red-brown just like her mother’s.” The father corrects and Kyungsoo clears his throat. “It’s the same.” My husband defends while fiddling with his fingers. Baekyun glances at his daughter’s hair. “Really? I don’t thin—“I don’t have my glasses. Don’t judge. Change topic. Let’s go home.” Kyungsoo grabs my free hand and his other grabs Yohan. “B-but you’re wearing your glasses.” Baekhyun mutters from behind.

“It’s the different glasses.” Kyungsoo hisses back. He glances at me and I gave him the I-will-kill-you-later face. “Dad, why is mister so weird?” I hear Gaeul speaking from behind. “What did she say?” I whisper to Kyungsoo who was blinking. “She said I was handsome.’ He mouths softly and puts an arm over me. I see him briefly turn behind while scrunching his nose. “Kyungsoo, I’m sorry if ever you heard what the kid said. She didn’t mean it.” Baekhyun tells sincerely. “No not at all~ Gaeul-ah, Oppa here likes being complimented, keep calling him tha—“ Kyungsoo covered my mouth. “You’re injured, you’re not supposed to speak.” He muffles before walking faster while dragging me and Yohan along.

I just smirk at him.

I’m not that stupid not to know the word weird alright.