Sigh.

She feels eyes on her but she doesn’t turn to look. She can almost feel the judging glare but refuses to acknowledge it.

She continues to stare out the window with sad eyes.

“Tsk,” she hears. “This won’t do. We need to go out!”

She sighs again. “I’m not in the mood to go out, Soonkyu.”

Soonkyu sighs in frustration. “Oh come on, Taeyeon. You can’t keep moping like this!”

She doesn’t answer.

“Okay, they left, but so what? I’m here!”

“It’s not the same.” She shakes her head. “It’s my fault they left me.”

Soonkyu walks closer to her and puts an arm around her shoulders. “There was nothing you could do.”

“I.. I could’ve ran after them! B-but I didn’t. I didn’t do anything, Soonkyu!”

Soonkyu shakes her head. “What’s done is done, Taeyeon. You have to move on.”

“I can’t.”

“Well, I don’t think I can do anything more. Call me if anything’s up okay? I’ll see myself out.”

Taeyeon sat in silence even after Soonkyu leaves. Her friend tries more coaxing before finally giving up when Taeyeon refused to budge.

Taeyeon feels tears surging but looks up to prevent them from falling down. She sighs for a third time before deciding to sleep the heartache away.

—

She wakes up when she feels wetness on her cheek.

I must’ve been crying even in my sleep, she thinks to herself.

She wipes her cheek then tries to get back to sleep.

A few seconds in and she feels a light slap at the same area she felt the wetness awhile ago. 

Realizing that it couldn’t have been her own doing this time, she opens her eyes in shock, only to see a tiny person lying on her chest, smiling and drooling at the same.

She gasps, “Joohyun-ah!”

The baby giggles then slaps Taeyeon’s mouth this time.

“You’re here!” Taeyeon says as she hugs her mini-me.

“Umma!” someone shouts from outside the room before the door swings open and another person skillfully climbs her bed then carefully maneuvers around Joohyun to hug her mother.

“Seohyun! You’re here too!”

Seohyun giggles. “Of course, Umma, I live here!”

Taeyeon nods and laughs, “Of course, of course.” She nuzzles both her daughters before hugging them as tight as she can without crushing them.

“Ahem.”

All eyes - save for the pair owned by the tiniest person in the room - went to another, taller, person standing by the door with a fake glare.

“Mommy!”

The woman smiles. “Seohyun-ah, why don’t you change your clothes first and fix your things? I’ll come help you in a minute.”

“Okay, Mommy!” The girl gets out of Taeyeon’s hold before hopping off the bed and running outside.

Taeyeon stands up with Joohyun in her arms to put her youngest daughter inside her crib. She then proceeds to walk to the other woman in the room and hugs her tight.

“I’ve missed you, Miyoung-ah,” she whispers softly while tightening the hug.

She feels her hugging back. “I’ve missed you too...”

“but you’ve got to stop overreacting.”

She pulls away from the hug to glare at the woman now chuckling at her. “How can you say that? How was that overreacting!”

“Taeyeon, we were only gone for more than two hours - three hours max.”

“Exactly! Two hours! Two hours with all three of you gone! How was I going to take that? I can’t even bear a minute without see you girls.”

Miyoung chuckles louder. “Oh wow, even after years of being married and with two kids, you’re still as cheesy as ever.”

“Don’t mock me and my love for this family!”

“I’m not, babe. But you seriously need to chill.”

“But you left me. Alone,” she says, trying to guilt-trip the woman she knows she won’t ever win against.

 At that, the woman starts her rant. “I tried waking you up for like an hour but you didn’t even move! I told you not to stay up late last night. You knew we had to wake up early for Seohyun’s first day at pre-school, but no, you just had to watch a couple extra episodes of that drama.” 

Taeyeon bows her head in embarrassment. She did admit to Soonkyu that it was her fault she was left alone in the house.

“Sorry,” she mumbles.

She feels Miyoung hugging her. “It’s fine. We’re lucky Seohyun is a very understanding girl or else she would’ve thrown a fit because you weren’t there.”

“Yeah, Seohyun is mature for her age. We’re so lucky to have her. And Joohyun, too.”

Miyoung nods, “we are. Please listen to me next time.” She continues when Taeyeon hugs her tighter. “I know how much you want to be part of every milestone in our children’s lives, so I can’t have you staying up late at night and missing another important thing the next day.”

“Okay.”

“I promise to let you watch your drama when there’s nothing important to do after, okay, Ahjumma?” Miyoung adds teasingly.

Taeyeon laughs and nods, “yeah, okay. Deal.”

They spend another minute hugging before they hear Seohyun calling out to both of them, asking for help to fix her things.

“I’ll go,” Taeyeon says. “I’m sure she has loads of stories to tell about her first day.”

Miyoung nods then gives her a soft kiss on the lips. “I’m sure she does.” Miyoung pushes her softly out of the door before walking back to Joohyun.

Taeyeon smiles at the sight.

“Umma!!”

My girls are back.